Houston may be tops in buying renewable energy, but some city neighborhoods are not doing their part when it comes to recycling:
After enduring years of lagging participation, city solid waste officials are making good on a promise to kick some neighborhoods’ recycling service from the curb.
Harry Hayes, the city’s solid waste director, recently sent letters to residents in 43 Houston neighborhoods, threatening to stop collecting their recyclables.
The roughly 23,000 households were told that they must improve their participation rates to prove that servicing their neighborhoods is worth the cost, particularly in light of high diesel fuel prices.
Participation in those neighborhoods, city officials say, has fallen below 10 percent, with some as low as 2 percent. Other areas see as high as 70 percent participation, according to a 2006 survey.
“In too many cases, the department’s trucks must drive through entire neighborhoods to collect only a few bins,” Hayes wrote in the letter to residents. “Those neighborhoods that do not improve their set-out rates will be dropped from the program at the end of this calendar year.”
How much gas is wasted and pollution created to have those recycling trucks drive around picking up almost nothing?
People have to want to recycle, or they have to be “encouraged” (forced) to recycle. Some Northern California cities do the latter by providing one small-sized trash can, several containers for recyclables, and a poster-sized diagram of what goes where. Since landfill space is at a premium in California, there is little alternative.
Thankfully, this is Texas where we still have the freedom to choose whether or not to recycle.
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