skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Should Houston Trash Plans for "One Bin for All" Waste Collection?

play audio
Play

Friday, March 15, 2013   

HOUSTON – The city of Houston is being urged to trash its proposal for a one bin garbage and recycling system.

City officials are considering a plan for residents to toss all waste into a single bin, with the separation done at a new materials recycling facility – known as a dirty MRF (mirff).

It may sound like a novel idea on the surface, but Robert Bullard, dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University, says it's really a step backwards.

"Having this idea that you can just put everything in one bin and then shoot it off to some facility and not aggressively move forward with real recycling, I think that may be one of the drawbacks of it,” he says. “It may give the false impression that somehow we can deal with our waste without really dealing with a full blown recycling plan."

As the system stands now, nearly half of Houstonians don't even have recycling services. If the one bin plan moves forward, the estimated cost to build the new dirty MRF is $100 million and would be funded through a public-private partnership.

One of the issues with the one bin process is that contamination causes a lot of material to never be recycled.

Tyson Sowell is the Houston area program director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

"Any time you're putting paper in with coffee grounds, you contaminate that paper,” he explains. “And that paper is now worthless and no recycler is going to purchase that paper to actually recycle it, so with no end market, it ends up being put in a landfill."

The "One Bin for All" blueprint to lower costs and reduce landfill waste earned Houston a $1 million prize from Bloomberg Charities, and city officials call the plan revolutionary and cutting edge.

Bullard says for the fourth largest city in America – out on a limb might be a better description.

"There's no queue or long line of cities moving in that direction,” he says. “And what they're talking about is untried and is experimental and so I think that you take a million dollars and study it, but you should not scrap what you have, something that's tried and true."





get more stories like this via email

more stories
Creedon Newell practices teaching construction skills in Wyoming's new career and technical educator bridge course, designed to encourage trades students and professionals to pursue a career in CTE teaching. (Photo by Rob Hill)

Social Issues

play sound

By Lane Wendell Fischer for the Shasta Scout via The Daily Yonder.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service for the Public News …


Environment

play sound

By Naoki Nitta for Civil Eats.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public Ne…

Social Issues

play sound

Concerns about potential voter intimidation have spurred several states to consider banning firearms at polling sites but so far, New Hampshire is …


Though Connecticut's benefits cliff persists, there are other programs helping people maintain benefits of some kind when their income pushes them over the limit. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Today, groups working with lower-income families in Connecticut are raising awareness about the state's "benefits cliff" with a day of action…

Social Issues

play sound

Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick has released 57 "interim charges," the topics he wants Senate committees to study in preparation for the 89th …

It is estimated the Wild Springs Solar Project in New Underwood, South Dakota, will offset 190,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

The construction of more solar farms in the U.S. has been contentious but a new survey shows their size makes a difference in whether solar projects …

Social Issues

play sound

Minnesota's largest school district is at the center of a budget controversy tied to the recent wave of school board candidates fighting diversity pro…

play sound

Minnesota lawmakers are considering a measure which would force employers to properly classify certain trade union workers and others as employees rat…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021