Introduction
Houston is among the key cities in the South particularly in Texas where major government infrastructures such as the NASA space station was established. However, the city just like any other place in America is also facing with several dilemmas ranging from social to political and environmental. Recent reports revealed that the city of Houston is on its way of implementing a new recycling project that city officials believe would support the reduction of greenhouse emission, garbage collection and other environmental risks entailed by inefficient waste management. One of the objectives of the new project is the so-called “One Bin for All”, which was originally proposed by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. However, the issue with the said recycling project is not limited to addressing waste management, but also with the cost of implementing it.
In general, the city does not have curbside recycling system that will minimize waste in the city while keeping the cost at the minimum. In addition, surveys revealed that only 14% of the total Houston households actually do recycling on a daily basis. The One-Bin-for-All project calls for residents to put all their wastes into one bin for easier collection, and the waste processing facility will be the one tasked to do the segregation of each waste type. However, the cost of building such facility and integration of an appropriate technology requires at least $100 million to be operational.
The problem here is both the cost and the concept of the project itself and there are several reasons that explain why the project is an issue. First, the concept of one bin for all wastes is an old habit that has long been defeated by the segregation initiatives. The reason that waste segregation was introduced is to encourage people to recycle all sorts of waste and to avoid non-biodegradable waste from mixing with biodegradables. In addition, it was proven that segregation is still far more cost-effective than putting together all wastes into one bin and letting the waste processing facility to do the segregation. Non-biodegradable wastes are definitely recyclables, allowing the recycling process to start from the household instead of the processing plant is for the waste management sector to easily save on necessary machineries that will do the segregation work.
The cost of integrating new technology into the processing facility for the work that could simply be done at the household level is unreasonable on the grounds that the money for such project could be used for far more significant purposes. For example, improving community based recycling programs, where households would be educated on the ways their non-biodegradable wastes can be used for other domestic purposes without the need for complex processing methods. In addition, there are recycling facilities that process paper, if household wastes were to be dumped in a single bin, the paper wastes that could have been brought to the paper mills would no longer be usable. This implies that the proposed recycling program is actually unsustainable and very costly. There is an encompassing dilemma in the proposal for all Houston residents and that is the possibility of misappropriation of the city’s funds. Waste management along with other citywide projects should encompass effective cost management. It appears that the proposed project does not actually address the city’s environmental sustainability, but only making it worst in the process, not to mention the amount of money that is possibly will also go down the drain.
Works Cited
Ferragut, Ted. "Partnerships for Sustainability: A New Approach to Highway Materials." Report on the Houston Workshop (2001): n. pag. Web. 4 Sept. 2013. <http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/recycling/houston.pdf>.
Jansen @TheKerriJansen, Kerri. "Houston expands automated curbside recycling program - Recycling Waste & Recycling News." Waste & Recycling News. wasterecyclingnews.com, 14 June 2013. Web. 4 Sept. 2013. <http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/article/20130614/NEWS02/130619957/houston-expands-automated-curbside-recycling-program>.
Wray, Dianna. "You Don't Get Something for Nothing: Environmentalist Still Thinks Houston's New Recycling Project Is Wanting." blogs.houstonpress.com. Houston Press, n.d. Web. 4 Sept. 2013. <http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/06/you_dont_get_something_for_not.php>.
