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Mayor Bill White confers with Preston Roe, LaSalette Civic Club president, about energizing neighborhood recycling. The club plans to use reward money to plant trees in neighborhood esplanades.

Story and photo by John Perry

And they’re off!

The city-sponsored Go Green Houston curbside recycling competition will give neighborhoods with the most improved recycling participation as of Dec. 31, up to $20,000.

The cash competition is sure to be fierce among the 162,000 households located within 260 participating communities.

The rules are simple: Neighborhoods recycling the most trash, win cash.

Winners will receive $5,000 in each of four categories: most improved paper recycling; overall highest score for paper recycling; most improved commingled trash; and highest overall commingled score.

Scores will be based on a combination of recycling rate and weight, with each accounting for 50 percent of the score.

Commingled trash includes aluminum, tin, steel, empty aerosol cans, flattened corrugated cardboard, plastic containers and other nonpaper items.

A single neighborhood winning all categories would score $20,000.
“We’re not waiting until December to score,” said Marina Joseph, Solid Waste Management information manager. “We’ll be monitoring recycling bins throughout the contest.”

Currently, the program is not available citywide. There are a number of neighborhoods on a waiting list. Lack of participation by one neighborhood could result in loss of curbside recycling service for that area.

On Sept. 23, Wanda Adams and Christina Moreno-Conner of SWM helped organize community volunteers in a door-hanging campaign to jump start the competition starting from George Nelson Park, 3820 Yellowstone Blvd., south of downtown and east of the Texas Medical Center.

Before the volunteers set out, HPD Capt. Mark Fougerousse spoke about the crime-prevention aspects of their cause.

“A cleaner neighborhood is a deterrent to crime,” said Fougerousse of the southeast command division. “When criminals see an environment that’s neat and orderly, they know the citizens are vigilant, and they’ll go someplace else where the residents aren’t so involved.”

800 homes in 80 minutes
Mayor Bill White joined with volunteers, hanging his first door tag at the home of Preston Roe.

“We plan on winning the award for most improved paper recycling,” said Roe, LaSalette Civic Club and Super Neighborhood 68 president. “We’re gonna take the money and plant trees to beautify our esplanades.”

Roe, whose area had 5 percent participation last year, wants residents to use the green bins provided by the city, instead of giving recyclable trash to a city landfill.

“Selling recycled items puts money back into the city’s coffers,” Roe said. “Recycled cardboard can be sold as bond paper; and plastics can be melted down and remade into toys or used to reinforce asphalt to pave city streets.”

Next, White hung a tag on the door of Lillian Parker, president of Scott Terrace Civic Association, which had 6 percent participation last year.

“We are big supporters of the Go Green Houston campaign. We’re trying to win a $5,000 prize to hire a lawyer to help us with deed restrictions,” Parker said. “We want to keep our neighborhood clear of any bars or lounges that might try to move in. And continue supporting the Cullen Middle School, which we’ve adopted.”

Last year’s household participation was 20 percent among eligible neighborhoods.

Wearing Go Green Houston or Stop Trashing Houston T-shirts, the five two-person teams of high-school volunteers from DeBakey, Worthing and Yates, energetically walked door-to-door, hanging tags that challenged residents to increase their curbside recycling participation.

With each team responsible for 150 to 200 homes, 800 tags had been placed before noon.

“We want Houstonians to know how important it is to recycle, for our community, our environment and our livelihood,” said White, placing another door hanger. “If everyone can do just a little, it can all get done. Together, we can keep Houston beautiful and protect our environment.”

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