Solid Waste to receive 31 new trucks as complaints continue to rise

According to 311 data, from July 7 to Aug. 1, Solid Waste received thousands of complaints, including:

• 3,732 missed recycling pickup
• 3,326 missed garbage pickups
• 1,674 missed heavy trash pickups

The context

Larrius Hassan, Solid Waste’s new director appointed on July 23, revealed to City Council that his team conducted a three month review of the department’s operations, finances and route management and found issues such as:

• Employees not working the full 40-hour work week
• Supervisors who allowed employees to work from home, despite Mayor John Whitmire’s directive ordering all municipal employees to return to the office
• 32% of fleets were over seven years old
• An average of 30 trucks were down each day, and another 20 would break down on a route
• Employee participation in network shows, Houston Texans ads, travel and golfing using city dollars
• Outdated, decade-old collection routes due to underutilized software

Whitmire said the department faces other obstacles, such as the city only having one drop-off location for recycling. He criticized the city’s contract with FCC Environmental Services, a group that has been operating the city’s only recycling plant since 2019 in northeast Houston, with the mayor saying that having this one recycling drop-off location has led to one-hour wait times for recycling trucks.

He said the city will re-examine its contract with the group and look for other opportunities with different vendors for multiple recycling drop-off locations.

“We’ve got to have more drop-offs,” Whitmire said. “There was a model that was put in place by the city of Houston that is counterproductive to successful recycling.”