HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The City of Houston’s newest recycling trucks are now out on the streets.
Back in July, the Houston City Council approved roughly $12.4 million for 31 new trucks for the department. The agreement came at a time when Solid Waste Management acknowledged delays with recycling pickup.
The additional resources are meant to tackle current pickup delays. For recycling, Solid Waste said it’s about three to five days long.
Solid Waste told ABC13 back in July that delays are mainly due to a shortage of available vehicles and personnel. The department said nearly half of its fleet is out of service, and that its current trucks are more than seven years old with more than 150,000 miles.
On Monday, Eyewitness News captured the new vehicles leaving for their first routes. The trucks are currently white, but Houston Mayor John Whitmire said they will eventually be painted blue or green.
“We need 180 trucks on the road each day for recycling and garbage pickup. You got 50 in the shop because they are broken, because someone made a poor decision and bought used trucks. You buy other people’s problems,” Whitmire said, referencing decisions that were made before his term. “We saved $3,000 for each truck we didn’t paint. There’s going to be 21 others in two weeks.”
RELATED: Houston solid waste says it needs newer vehicles and more staff to help with recycling delays
On Wednesday, Houston City Council approved more trucks for the department. This comes at a time when Solid Waste acknowledged delays with recycling pickup.
“I’m pretty excited today. I agree with Houstonians: enough is enough. Let’s do whatever it takes,” Whitmire said.
However, equipment is one piece of the puzzle. According to Solid Waste Management, personnel is the other.
Along with that, Whitmire said the new Solid Waste Management director, Larius Hassen, made adjustments to existing personnel as well.
Whitmire said the next thing they’re looking at is adding more drop-off areas for Solid Waste Management. Currently, he said the city only has one for all 600 square miles.
The department told ABC13 that the city currently operates under a contract put in place back in 2018. It designates a single drop-off site for materials collected across Houston.
The department said all recycling trucks must travel to that one location to unload, regardless of where their routes are. Solid Waste said travel to and from the site can take two to three hours per trip, depending on the route.
Another issue Solid Waste Management mentioned was rodents due to a lack of operational truck wash bays. When it comes to protecting the new trucks from rodent damage, the department said it has already identified funding for repairs to the wash bays to help maintain the new trucks. Solid Waste Management said it expects the contractor to go before the council soon.
According to 311 call center data, problems with the solid waste department generate the most complaints in the city. Of the more than 53,000 open cases on Wednesday, a vast majority of them are solid waste issues. 311 data showed that missed recycling pickups are the number one call in the past three months, at nearly 15,000 complaints.
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