{"id":106114,"date":"2025-07-30T23:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/106114\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T23:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:58:09","slug":"residents-react-to-new-12-4m-recycling-initiative-approved-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/106114\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents react to new $12.4M recycling initiative approved in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">City council voted to approve $12.4 million dollars for the City of Houston\u2019s Solid Waste Management Department to purchase dozens of new garbage and recycling trucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The new trucks will replace an aging fleet that many say has contributed to missed and delayed recycling pickups.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Residents with green recycling bins in front of their homes expressed cautious optimism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m just not seeing the recycling being picked up regularly.\u201d said Danielle Ranneft, a Houston resident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Some bins have reportedly sat out for weeks, sometimes more than a month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">David Canlin, another resident, said, \u201cCity services have been sketchy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Mayor John Whitmire said the funding will allow the Solid Waste Management Department to buy 31 new trucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Resident Alfredo Garcia said, \u201cHopefully they\u2019ll, you know, spend that money wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Whitmire cautioned that new trucks alone won\u2019t solve the problem. He pointed to a contract signed during the tenure of former Mayor Sylvester Turner as a major obstacle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cNumber one obstacle is one drop-off location for recycling. One drop-off per 600 square miles,\u201d Whitmire said. \u201cIt\u2019s been like this since the city signed the contract with the Spanish vendor. We\u2019re examining that contract letter by letter. We\u2019ve got to have more drop-offs. We\u2019re going to have the personnel and the trucks. But there is a model put in place by the city of Houston that is counterproductive to successful recycling.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">He added, \u201cI just don\u2019t know how a reasonable person can give someone a long-term contract that is dysfunctional. And it makes you wonder, who knew who? Let\u2019s go ahead and put that on the table. There\u2019s no reason that contract should be in place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City council voted to approve $12.4 million dollars for the City of Houston\u2019s Solid Waste Management Department to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":106115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,425,50,80,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-106114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-local","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114944901399388432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}