Houston is taking action to end years of recycling delays as Mayor John Whitmire unveiled nine new collection trucks Monday morning, aiming to get the city’s curbside service back on track.
The rollout took place at the Solid Waste Management Northeast Service Center, where Whitmire emphasized that garbage and recycling are “critical first responder services” and vowed to address the system’s longstanding issues.
“Recycling, garbage pickup — quality of life issues — is one of our highest priorities,” Whitmire said. “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of the lack of garbage reliability. We have to get this done for Houstonians.”
Whitmire highlighted that past mismanagement and poor equipment choices, including the purchase of used trucks, contributed to the problems.
“We need 180 trucks on the roads each day,” he said. “If you’ve got 50 in the shop because they’re broken, you buy other people’s problems. This is a new day at solid waste.”
The mayor also praised Hassen and the rank-and-file crew for improving morale and getting the system back on track. He said several more trucks will be added in the coming weeks, part of a $12.5 million investment in the city’s garbage and recycling programs.
“We didn’t take time to paint them. They came in Friday, I said hit the road. We didn’t take time to paint them, we saved $3,000 for each truck that we didn’t paint,” Whitmire said.
Officials warn it could take six to eight months before all new trucks are operational. Whitmire and Hassen said they are also addressing staffing and operational issues to ensure the improvements have a lasting impact.
