HOUSTON — Houston will spend millions to get its recycling pickup schedule back on track after City Council voted Wednesday to outsource roughly a quarter of its daily collection routes and rent extra trucks.
The emergency spending agenda item comes after recent reports of residents’ recycling bins not being emptied on scheduled days or at all.
Harry Hayes, Director of Solid Waste Management Department, hopes the emergency purchase can bring the city’s recycling collection schedule back to normal by the middle to end of February.
“I think it will be significant,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner after the vote Wednesday morning at City Hall.
The plan calls for spending $4.56 million to outsource 10 daily recycling routes to Texas Pride Disposal Solutions, LLC starting Feb. 1.
“That will free up personnel and resources that we will be using on those 10 routes that we can redeploy in other areas,” Turner said.
Council also signed off on $450,000 to rent five heavy trucks from Big Truck Rentals, LLC to help with recycling and yard waste pickup.
Both deals last for a year. The $5 million total is coming from the city’s fund reserve, which is basically a savings account the city’s required to have.
“There are a number of pieces of equipment that are coming in August, so this will come and bridge us over,” Turner said, referring to 69 new pieces of equipment that City Council has signed off on.
A post-holiday backlog and old recycling trucks are part of the problem. There’s also a shortage of experienced drivers and mechanics.
Additionally, some bins washed away during Harvey, and there’s a delay in delivering new ones.
On Wednesday, Hayes told KHOU that his department has hired 13 new drivers that will start the following week, along with another nine that will begin the week after that.
Hayes added that he’s looking for experienced heavy truck drivers at Houston Public Works to help clean trash out of ditches and streets ahead of the recycling crews.
The goal: ease homeowner frustrations piling up and relieve crews working long hours and days straight trying to make it right.
Hayes said anyone needing a new bin can call 311 or drop their recycling off at one of six centers.
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