Houston tops the list of cities buying green power. Houston purchases over 350 million kilowatt-hours of green power, a number expected to double each year. Houston, however, has a horrible record when it comes to recycling. Only 2.6% of Houston’s waste is recycled. Compare that to 69% of San Francisco’s waste.

Maybe that’s why San Francisco is donating 276 recycling bins to Houston to help reduce Houston’s 25,000 bin wait-list, which will last over 10 years at projected bin distribution rates. Many people in Houston cannot even get on the wait-list because they first must go through neighborhood associations. And yet curbside recycling will will disappear from a number of communities around Houston, forcing those who are recycling in those low utilization neighborhoods to make the choice between stopping recycling and taking their recycling to a community recycling location. In sprawling Houston, such a location is not necessarily nearby.

As Stephen Elliott writes:

Exxon, based in Houston, is the most profitable company in the world, clearing almost sixteen billion dollars last quarter. Like most oil companies they are repositioning themselves as environmentally friendly. It would cost Exxon around $160,000 to clear Houston’s recycling bin waitlist. Exxon makes that much profit every minute. I’m sure they wouldn’t hesitate to help their local recycling program if the right person asked. Then it would be Houston helping Houston, instead of San Francisco helping Houston, though we’re grateful for the opportunity.

Of course, there’s more to be done. Cities across America are going to have to invest many millions to really make a dent in some of our environmental issues. But that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we can in the meantime, especially when the price is so low. If you want to help Houston recycle, send $6.25 for every bin, checks made out to the City of Houston, P.O. Box 1562, Houston, TX 77251, accompanied with a letter stating the purpose of the donation. Include a note saying you’re donating money for recycling bins and are not affiliated with any candidate. Houston and San Francisco might be almost 2,000 miles apart, but we love the same planet.

Kuff points out that responsibility for Houston’s shoddy recycling record rests with the mayor. If Mayor White wants to run for governor, especially when he will run on “Cleaning up Texas” as an issue, he needs to clean up this national embarrassment Houston suffers.

- Justin Gillenwater

Posted by Justin on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 3:07 pm.