HOUSTON: RECYCLE OR LOSE SERVICES?
West University Examiner
By Megan Cooper
June 20, 2006 - Neighborhood associations in Houston are eligible for the city's new incentive program that offers $5,000 cash prizes for participation in curbside recycling - and threatens banishment from curbside service for low participation.
Houston has also launched a $350,000 "Go Green" awareness campaign to start from scratch with promoting the 16-year-old recycling program, which has seen participation plummet in recent years.
"In the past, we haven't had the budget to promote the program, so we are basically trying to start all over," said Marina Joseph, spokeswoman for Houston's Solid Waste Management Department. "Our objective is to provide an incentive to raise awareness and participation. The only way they will lose the service is if they don't participate."
Cash prizes of $5,000 will be awarded to subdivisions which score highest in four separate categories: most improved paper recycling, overall highest paper recycling, most improved co-mingled items and highest overall co-mingled totals.
The winning neighborhoods can use the money for any project approved by the city. Paul Pieri, general manager of the Meyerland Community Improvement Association, said Meyerland's participation level in recycling is a steady 80-90 percent.
"We just have residents who are interested in it, and they just keep doing it," Pieri said. His group isn't actively participating for the awards, he said.
But the nearby Braeswood Place Homeowners Association, with a participation rate of 43 percent, doesn't meet the cutoff to keep recycling and is using the competition to re-energize its recycling effort.
Association officials called a meeting last Thursday to discuss the issue in detail, and Judy Siverson of the group said there was "great support" for the incentive program.
"We are working on increasing participation and seeing what we can do on a block-by-block basis," she said. "I've always known we all can do better, do more."
Siverson said strategies are to use the neighborhood association's newsletter to publicize the program and recruit volunteers to do recycling education.
"I think some folks need more information, some folks need a green bin, some probably don't know what the city will pick up, what they won't pick up," she said. "We need to make sure everyone has the tools they need to participate."
Curbside recycling began in Houston as a pilot program in 1990 with 27,000 homes and now has 162,000 households signed up for the new biweekly service.
Materials collected include aluminum and tin cans, common household plastics, corrugated cardboard, mail and office paper, telephone books, newspapers, magazines and used motor oil.
Neighborhoods were added only when they agreed to meet a 50 percent minimum level of participation, but the current average participation rate is 20 percent - only about 32,400 homes - and the program has turned into a money loser, officials admit.
That has led to the threat to cut neighborhoods.
"As long as they meet the minimum participation level they don't have to worry about losing the service," said Joseph. "The neighborhoods who really want it won't have a problem keeping it."
Houston's new strategy was devised at the 2006 Environmental Summit on June 1.
The general education campaign will include inserts in newspapers and water bills, distribution of recycling guides and door hangers, and phone calls and visits to schools, civic clubs, park programs, libraries and day camps by city staff.
For further information about the campaign or Houston recycling, call the city's customer service line at 311, or visit www.gogreenhouston.org or www.houstonsolidwaste.org.