As this site and community grows, we are seeing some amazing contributions from readers just like you. If we continue to work together and share local tips, we will help ourselves and others walk the green road. With that said, here are some of my favorite comments from the last couple weeks.

On Bottled Water-free Summer a Success, Catherine says:

I’ve given up bottled water as well. After seeing all of the bottles lining the marsh by the Pitt Street Bridge in Mt. Pleasant, I went out and bought Sigg water bottles for the family. Now we just fill them up with water from the fridge and go. Our grocery bills are lighter as are our recylce bins. It has been a great decision for us and we don’t miss them at all!

On Certified South Carolina – A Myth?, Monica says:

I saw some stickers at the Piggly Wiggly off the IOP connector about a month ago on some peaches. Since then, I’ve looked, but it looks like all the peaches since have been from out of state. I’ve looked for them at Whole Foods and have seen Zippo–Zero–ZILCH. Only “Local” signs with arrows to squash. And “Regional” signs to onions from GA.

On CARTA in Summerville, Paul Cantrell says:

We attended the meeting this evening and there was an impressive turnout. There was nearly 100% positive feedback with current CARTA Express routes. The new Summerville routes were received well, except for 2 major concerns.

They are proposing 1 or 2 routes originating from Summerville’s Heritage Square on Berlin G Myers Parkway at Highway 78. One would go up 78 to Ladson road to Dorchester Road to I26 downtown. The other would go up 78 and then up Rivers Avenue to Montague then I26 downtown. The proposed routes would take at most by their estimate 1 hour and 30 minutes.

The concerns were that there was no Oakbrook route (major). People from Oakbrook would have to drive to downtown Summerville to then go back to Dorchester Road. Several said it would be a waste of their time.

The other main concern was the length of time and route. It will take too long to get to work and back home. Also, they are currently talking about building a new superstop on Montague and having the Summerville express routes stopping there.

I emailed them suggesting having 2 routes leave Summerville, one from Heritage Square and the other from Oakbrook. Also, I suggested they not go down 78, but instead go up I26 to 78/52 and go by the Kmart and take their route downtown.

Anyone else attend? What am I leaving out?

On A Chance to Help our Beaches and Rivers, Angie B. says:

I have suggestions: Whether it is for the Highway litter pick up or the beach sweep. We have tried it with our littler pick up team and it works great.

For example: you have a stretch of beach or Highway to clean and you have one team. Divide the team in two teams. The first team is the recycling team. They walks the stretch of beach or road first and ALL they pick up are aluminum and steel cans and plastic bottles. They do not pick up anything else. Then the second team the trash team follows them and pick s up whatever is left. To simplify it in case recycling team overlooked an item the trash team will just add it to the trash. In the end you end up with two piles and you collect the recycling bags and take them to the recycling drop off.

I once suggested this to the beach sweep coordinator on Sullivan’s island and was told it does not work. I beg to differ we have tried it and it works . it is simple enough.

We also have contacted Charleston County to see if in the future they might consider handing out orange bags for trash and green bags for recycling. I am not sure if they will.

That’s it for now. I want to give a huge thanks to our readers for the invaluable info…keep it up! Our goal is to help make Charleston as green as it can be, and our collective knowledge is a big part of making that happen.