Mayor Sylvester Turner
Houston residents are set to have their used glass and plastic bags picked up for recycling at curbside, but not until next year.
The 20-year, $37 million agreement City Council approved Wednesday is the product of two years of wrangling over recycling and positions Houston to pay less per ton to recycle.
Houstonians still have to wait another 14 months before putting bottles or bags in their green curbside bins, however, while the city’s chosen contractor builds a new processing facility.
To bridge the gap, the city plans to renegotiate its existing, costlier recycling agreement, which expires in April.
“From a financial point of view, it is a much better deal for the city of Houston,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said, praising the deal with the Spanish firm FCC. “In terms of technology, it meets what our needs are and what we have asked for.”
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Rosanne Barone, Houston program director for the advocacy group Texas Campaign for the Environment, lauded the city for “heading in the right direction” on recycling.
“This shows the mayor is committed to continuing moving forward to make the city of Houston more sustainable. We’re so happy glass is going to be back, and so happy and surprised and excited that plastic bags are now going to be included,” Barone said. “The next step is just to keep moving forward: To keep including more materials, to expand curbside pickup to apartments and businesses.”
See here and here for the background. CMs Knox, Stardig, and Kubosh were No votes, but CM Dave Martin, who had previously been a critic of the deal, voted Yes. I know a lot of people will be happy to have curbside pickup of glass back, though that will likely mean the end of one new business that emerged to fill that gap. Getting curbside pickup for plastic bags, which San Antonio has been doing since 2014, is a nice bonus. As Rosanne Barone says, let this be another step in the journey forward. Houstonia has more.
What happened to the announcement 6 months ago (pre-Harvey) that glass recycling would be restarting this January? (I saw scattered broken glass around recycling bins this week.)
This is a major accomplishment because it will be a positive part of Mayor Turner’s legacy long after term limits kick in. I am proud to be the Senior Assistant City Attorney that negotiated this contract (twice). Mayor Turner is a very strong advocate of recycling and protecting our environment and he challenged everyone at the table to do more than just continue the status quo. The new contract also has the flexibility to add new recycling commodities beyond glass and plastic bags when new markets open up in the future.