Green advances are being made in eco-friendly efforts

Charlie Caldwell doesn’t mind admitting when his wife is right, which, as most men know, is all of the time.

So when Alice Caldwell reminded him it was time to finish what he started – to stop using plastic shopping bags at Ovis Hill Farmers Market – he naturally concurred.

“My wife told me to do it, and I always listen to my wife,” Caldwell said as he checked out shoppers on a recent Wednesday at Ovis Hill Farmers Market at The Gallery on 8th in Myrtle Beach. “It was time to make it happen.”

Caldwell, who has operated the community supported agriculture farmers market here for about six years, will soon cease use of plastic shopping bags.

“In March, we will no longer use plastic bags, but [we] will have paper bags or boxes for new customers or those who forget,” Caldwell told shoppers in a Jan. 4 email. “We are not trying to be difficult, but [we] are constantly working towards making our business as environmentally friendly as possible.”

Folks are green, but not with envy. Shoppers, managers of farmers markets and chefs are among those mining green opportunities while heightening their eco-friendly efforts on the Grand Strand.

“About four years ago, I started looking into becoming more environmentally friendly,” said Jen Carlson, a Myrtle Beach resident who shops at Ovis Hill Farmers Market at The Gallery on 8th. “If there are things I can do to help out the environment, I want to do them.”

Each time Carlson shops there, her purchases go into an insulated reusable cooler container, which resembles a carry-on suitcase on wheels.

Charlie Caldwell has been giving shoppers 25 cents every time they bring in their own reusable shopping bags this month, as a way to reward their good eco-friendly behavior. In February, he will give each shopper 10 cents.

Other businesses are also providing ways to assist shoppers in being green. Food Lion, for instance, has a page on its website dedicated to being a “Green Shopper” for consumers who care “about the effect their purchasing decisions have on the world around them.”

Tips listed by Food Lion include buying local, buying organic and nixing catalogs to save our forests.

At Ovis Hill Farmers Market, an array of statewide organic produce, free-range meat and other all-natural food is sold.

Carlson, who used to eat Snickers for lunch, is now hooked on healthy foods and doesn’t dine out.

“When you are in the lifestyle, it’s easier to think about what you can do to help save the environment,” said Carlson, who also uses cloth diapers on her 16-month-old son, Brayden, as she did with her 3-year-old daughter, Leah.

Carlson said her mother-in-law, Nancy Carlson, inspired her to be green by eating healthier and buying food made closer to home.

“I like using recyclable bags,” Nancy Carlson said after a day of shopping at Ovis Hill Farmers Market. “Doing so makes me feel better.”

Adam Kirby, executive chef of Bistro 217 in Pawleys Island and co-owner, along with Ann Hardee, has a green state of mind on and off the job.

He has long grown his own vegetables and herbs, which he plants in an on-site garden. Also an avid fisherman, he fishes responsibly because he wants future generations to enjoy the same fish he does now.

At work, he and Hardee have taken steps to make their eatery more environmentally friendly, including buying organic food, buying from local food sellers and using biodegradable cups made from corn.

“Why not change the world for the better?” Kirby said. “I think it’s important.”

A study completed last spring essentially showed 64 percent of all restaurants in America have some sort of recycling or sustainability project going on, said Tom Sponseller, president of the South Carolina Hospitality Association.

There are seven restaurants in Horry County, for example, that are a part of the South Carolina Green Hospitality Alliance.

These are eateries that have become certified through state’s hospitality association and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control for going beyond basic green efforts.

“It is much more than recycling,” said Sponseller, who also said the hospitality association is investigating how its restaurants and hotels can be zero waste zones, with nothing going to waste, which has successfully been done in Atlanta.

Water conservation, electrical conservation, use of sustainable food and green cleaning are among the criteria necessary to be identified as certified green restaurants or hotels for the South Carolina Green Hospitality Alliance.

Drunken Jack’s in Murrells Inlet, and all of the Centraarchy Restaurant Management Co. groups, including both California Dreaming and New York Prime, are among the businesses in the Green Hospitality Alliance.

“We have always been environmentally friendly,” said Jef Kirk, senior manager at New York Prime in Myrtle Beach. “It is our way of doing things. It is like paying taxes. It is just something we do.”

Restaurants nationwide, for example, have always recycled cooking oil, Sponseller said. They use to pay for the recycling costs, but now companies pay them for their old grease. Subsequently, the used oil has become a hot commodity for thieves who use it as a form of biodiesel for their vehicles. Local restaurants aren’t reporting such a problem but The New York Times has published at least two stories about the phenomenon, with California among the states beefing up its efforts to guard against grease theft.