Charleston County, S.C., will open a new $24 million recycling facility in early 2019, but until it does, it’s sending its recyclables to Horry County, which is approximately 100 miles away. Horry County shipped its recyclables to Charleston County after a fire hampered its own facility in 1996.

Charleston County spent about $1.4 million transporting the recyclables and compensating Horry County during the 2017 fiscal year. The arrangement has forced Horry County to add more workers and double the length of its workday.

The Post and Courier has more information:

Horry County's recycling facility is just a stop along a longer journey. 

Soda cans will be sent to a plant in Alabama, soup cans to steel mills in Pennsylvania. Large stacks of cardboard will eventually land in China. A shipping container backed up to the building is bound for the Port of Charleston, and then on to India.

The cardboard boxes, milk jugs and tuna cans waiting to be lifted onto a conveyor belt for sorting already made a trip to get here, however — some from as far away as the Lowcountry.

Read the full story here.