For some visitors, the Verizon Heritage is almost as much a drinking event as it is a golf tournament.

Now, for the first time this year, all those empty beer cans and bottles won't just be going into a hole in the ground.

The tournament and its partners have set up recycling bins around Harbour Town Golf Links where people can deposit aluminum cans, plastic bottles and cardboard. Trash hauler Waste Management is organizing the effort.

The initiative comes as Hilton Head Island is researching how to increase recycling townwide, from parks and beaches to homes and businesses.

Recycling has been optional for homes for a long time, but now the town is considering making it mandatory, in addition to adding recycling bins at public parks and beaches.

The Heritage program originally began as a fundraiser for the Hilton Head Humane Association. Organizers proposed collecting cans and taking them across state lines to get cash refunds, said Angela McSwain, marketing director for the tournament. Organizers decided that plan wouldn't work, so Waste Management will handle the recyclables, McSwain said.

The Heritage Classic Foundation will still make a donation to the Humane Association under what it is calling the "Cans for Canines" program.