Overwhelmed by high volumes of heavy trash last month, city collection crews are running a week behind schedule and have enlisted an outside contractor to help clear the junk waste that remains piled outside homes across Houston.
The city’s Solid Waste Management Department collects heavy trash items, including furniture and appliances, every other month, alternating with tree waste collection during the other months. City officials are continuing to collect tree waste in May as scheduled and are asking residents to keep their uncollected heavy trash in a separate pile.
To handle the backlog, the city has hired DRC Emergency Services, a contractor that typically handles Houston’s disaster debris removal, Mayor Sylvester Turner said at this week’s City Council meeting. DRC has deployed at least a dozen crews to supplement collection efforts by city employees, according to the mayor.
“There was an inordinate amount of junk waste that was put out in the month of April,” Turner said. “There was more than has been out there in a while, so (crews) have fallen behind for about a week.”
District A Councilmember Amy Peck said residents of her northwest Houston district have reported delays in heavy trash pickup for the last two weeks, suggesting crews are even farther behind schedule in some areas than the mayor reported.
City officials have used a number of stopgap measures in recent years to help the beleaguered Solid Waste Management Department, which has not added enough collection routes to meet the demands of the growing city and, even after ordering dozens of new collection vehicles in 2019, continues to operate a worn-down fleet.
While Austin, San Antonio and Dallas charge their residents more than $20 a month for garbage collection, Houston does not charge anything aside from a $1.14 monthly fee for garbage and recycling bins enacted last year.
Peck said next year’s city budget, which will take effect July 1, should use federal stimulus funds to address years of deferred maintenance on the Solid Waste Management Department’s aging fleet of garbage and recycling trucks.
“We need to prioritize the solid waste department,” Peck said. “People are frustrated. They’re paying a fee on top of their taxes, and their trash isn’t being picked up.”
It’s not clear what caused the spike in heavy trash last month. Last July, the city hired DRC to help city crews clear a junk waste backlog that city officials attributed to residents cleaning out their homes and garages as they remained stuck at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many homeowners are also still dealing with the aftermath of the February freeze.
The City Council also approved Turner’s request in August 2019 to hire DRC to help meet heavy trash demand and clear illegal dumping sites around the city. Earlier that year, Turner ordered an internal investigation after a report by KHOU revealed that Solid Waste Management Department employees had mixed trash and recycling and dumped recyclables at the city’s garbage facility.
jasper.scherer@chron.com
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