13 Investigates: City of Houston prioritizes delivery to thousands who need trash, recycling bins
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Dolores Alvarez said she's been waiting two months for the City of Houston to replace her trash bin, which she says has holes in the bottom of it.
So, she said she wasn't expecting it when a truck trailer stacked with about two dozen trash and recycling bins dropped one off for her on Wednesday morning.
"I'm happy because the other (one) is broken," Alvarez told 13 Investigates.
The bin was delivered as part of Houston councilmember Tiffany Thomas' response to a backlog of residents who said they have been waiting months for trash and recycling bins to be delivered to their homes.
"We're starting today, so residents, don't be surprised if you see a bin or trash bin show up on your front door," Thomas said.
On Friday, 13 Investigates reported on the thousands of Houstonians who put in requests for new bins this year but are still waiting on them. ABC13 spoke with one resident, who said their neighbors let them borrow their cans, and another told us their family members in Sugar Land drive a round trip to Houston to pick up their trash and put it in their bins since the city wouldn't pick it up without a can.
The city delivered bins to those two residents after 13 Investigates reached out to ask them about it, but thousands more Houstonians are still waiting for theirs.
Now, the city says it is working to clear the backlog of people who need a replacement or new bin.
"I've been here 20 months. I only learned about this in recent days. Now that I know about it, I'll take my team, we sit down, we're dividing the city, we're going to get the bins where they belong," Houston Mayor John Whitmire told 13 Investigates during a sit-down interview after Wednesday's council meeting. "I can't fix things I don't know about. I know about it now. I need to be held accountable, but we've got our entire administration working on it and I'm guardedly optimistic."
Last week, 13 Investigates analyzed 311 data and found there were nearly 7,000 open requests with 311 for people who need a trash or recycling bin.
As of Wednesday, Whitmire said there were about 5,000 residents who needed a new or replacement trash or recycling bin.
Thomas said about 10 days ago, she started noticing a trend of residents who told her office they requested a bin months ago, but never received one.
Thomas said her staff is working with recently appointed Solid Waste Director Larius Hassen to get a list of all the residents in her district who need a trash or recycling bin.
She said her staff will work over the next few months to deliver bins to the 176 residents in her district who opened a case with 311 over the last two months.
"From an efficiency standpoint, the director's been very responsive in making sure if we bump up an email, that it's delivered, but we can't do it one at a time. That's not efficient for us and he shouldn't be distracted by individual requests from a council member," Thomas said. "For me, it was important that we have the biggest impact to take the list for the last two months, pick up the can, start dropping them off and Solid Waste can focus on curing recycle delays, curing heavy trash days, and we can take care of the bins."
Residents previously told 13 Investigates they would be willing to pick up their replacement trash bins themselves.
Currently, that isn't an option but Whitmire said he's exploring options to make that happen.
"We've got all hands on deck. We actually are looking at maybe police cadets doing their public service by distributing them. The council members are participating. We're going to have pickup centers at fire stations," Whitmire said. "Thank you and Channel 13 for bringing it to our attention. I had no idea the extent of this problem because we had a director that was not transparent."
Whitmire appointed a new solid waste director this summer.
"We just want the city to work. We look at quality of life issues. This is certainly a quality of life issue, but right now I have confidence in the new director," Whitmire said. "We're getting new equipment, new trucks. He's hiring drivers, so we're on the right path, but it's just going to take time. You cannot fix something that's been neglected for years in a very short time, didn't get like this overnight, and it won't get fixed overnight."
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