Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
Pending Applications - Recycling and Education Outreach
Additionally, the City of Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department is applying for the EPA’s Education and Outreach funding for the purpose of developing and implementing educational programs for City residents focused on reducing, reusing, and recycling waste. Houston’s goal is to reduce the environmental impacts of solid waste disposal by improving the diversion rate of recyclable materials generated through the solid waste system.
To improve that diversion rate, Houston will look to expand education and community outreach beyond the City’s current residential recycling program. This program will directly correlate with reducing environmental impacts to disadvantaged communities, while extending the life of the City’s landfill; which is consistent with EPA’s priorities for the funding.
In 2021, City completed its Integrated Resource Recovery Management Plan. This long-range solid waste plan identifies a number of actions, many of them focused on public education and community outreach. This Plan compliments the City’s overall Climate Action Plan that was also completed in 2021.
Moving forward, Houston next created an advisory committee called the Resource Recovery Integration Committee (RRIC) to help the City identify programs and policies that could expand recycling by businesses, institutions, and multi-family residents. The RRIC also served as a means for businesses, the waste industry, recyclers, organic waste processors and environmental groups to network and identify opportunities to work together.
- These sectors represent over 80% of the City’s waste stream and it was recognized that their participation is essential to the City meeting its reduction and recycling goals.
One of the main recommendations of the RRIC process was for the City to more actively educate businesses and institutions on how to reduce waste and increase recycling.
By developing toolkits for commercial, institutional, industrial, and multi-family, Houston can help these sectors implement in-house source reduction and recycling programs. The toolkits will provide guidance on what types of materials can be recycled, as well as what materials and equipment are necessary. Additionally, it will provide a list of specific contractors in the area that will collect recyclable materials and organics, and guidance on data tracking.
The Solid Waste Management Department would like to expand recycling efforts of the RRIC by educating multi-family residents and businesses of their impact to recycling within the City of Houston.
- Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation for multifamily complexes alone is approximately 626,600 tons per year and an increasing number of residents live in apartment buildings. With the help of this grant, the City would be able to achieve its goal of reducing this waste by 25% by 2040, equal to over 850,000 tons of municipal solid waste.
Issues that Houston wants to address with the Education Grant fund are: increasing the number of residents that participate in the program; reducing the contamination rate; and expanding the types of materials recovered through the program. The program will focus on community engagement, mass media and social media public service announcements, and collaborative planning efforts. For this $4,000,000.00 effort, the City of Houston is applying for a $2,000,000.00 grant to run this program from September of 2023 to August of 2025.