West University Place residents will see a $1.50 increase in their garbage service fees starting Aug. 1.
What happened
West U officials unanimously approved the “At Your Door” household hazardous waste collection service program at its June 22 meeting.
The contract with Waste Management would be for three years and would break down to be $1.50 per active household for three years. However, the contract allows for annual fee adjustments based on Consumer Price Index increases. The program allows residents to have their household hazardous waste picked up at their front door to be properly disposed of.
How it works
If a resident has hazardous waste that they want to properly recycle, such as batteries, paint cans, electronics or chemicals, they can go to WM's website, find the At Your Door service tab and answer the questions about what they want to recycle. WM will then send them a bag to put the materials in, and then residents will set it outside their front door to be picked up.
“We don't want it by the garbage can to be confused with regular garbage,” Shanna Lopez with WM said.
Waste Management will then set a designated day to come pick up the material.
WM will also provide monthly reports and updates about the type of hazardous waste they are seeing most often from West U, Lopez said.
What residents are saying
Residents who spoke at council were largely supportive of the deal, noting the convenience and the knowledge of the materials being handled professionally.
Only one resident spoke against it at the June 22 meeting. Orval Marlow said he did not support it because there was no data provided about the program that showed how many people in communities with the service currently use it.
He also said it costs more than the city's current program, which has three options:
- The Harris County Household Hazardous Waste disposal facility, where the cost is included with property taxes
- Houston’s HHW facilities through a voucher program that provides 150 vouchers, which costs $11,250 for the city
A citywide semi-annual recycling event that does not allow HHW recycling, which costs approximately $53,000The At Your Door program is an estimated $98,000 a year for the city and would cost $294,000 for the three-year duration.
“It seems the At Your Door HHW collection program is based on wants and hopes,” Marlow said. “We want our residents to have a new HHW collection program, and we hope that a significant number of households use what I call the feel-good program. It seems it's not based on hard data.”
One more thing
The program will begin Aug. 1, and the city will provide education on how to use the program.
