AMERICANS in a major city could soon see the local government impose a monthly fee of $10 or more for waste collection services.
The trash pickup charge would mark a major reversal from the decades-long free service, sparking mixed opinions among locals.
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The city’s 311 non-emergency service line revealed that over 8,000 residents submitted complaints last month regarding missed recycling collection.
This marked a more than two-fold increase from May, when around 3,100 recycling complaints were received.
Categories such as garbage and heavy trash pickups also faced an upsurge in complaints in June.
The jump in the number of grievances has highlighted issues with the Solid Waste Management Department in Houston, Texas.
As a result, there has been growing support for the city to implement a fee to fund waste collection service.
“Every neighboring city has a trash fee,” said District I council member Joaquin Martinez said at a meeting on Wednesday, per local CBS outlet KHOU. “I think we all know that that needs to be looked at.”
Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio charge monthly trash fees ranging from roughly $14 to $58, while in Houston, city officials have discussed and resisted implementing a garbage fee for decades.
Houston is the only major Texas city that does not charge a trash fee, instead funding its Solid Waste Management Department via the city’s general fund, which is supported by tax dollars.
In line with the complaints against Houston’s waste management practices, a 2023 survey from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University found that roughly 66% of residents were open to paying a fee for solid waste collection.
Some Houstonians, on the other hand, fear that a trash fee would take a toll on their household budgets.
“We’re both retirees and we are on fixed incomes,” Mary Plail of Westbury told KHOU. “I mean, it depends if it’s outrageously expensive, probably then I would take it to the dump or recycle center or even consider not doing it.”
FEELING OUT A FEE
A number of factors have negatively impacted the service quality at Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department, the department’s interim director Larius Hassen shared at the Wednesday meeting.
For example, the loss of 30 staff members due to a recent retirement buyout plan offered by mayor John Whitmire’s administration has slowed down garbage collection operations.
Outdated routing software has also played a role, as has the aging vehicle fleet and there being just one location for trucks to drop off recycling waste for processing.
Trash fees in major Texas cities
- Houston: $0
- Dallas: $37.98
- Austin: $26.20 to $58.40
- San Antonio: $14.76 to $30.75
Source: KHOU
Many residents are in favor of a solid waste fee if it means improved service, expressing openness to a sliding scale to adjust for household income, Kinder Institute representative Daniel Potter told KHOU.
Houston’s city government spends roughly $18 per household on solid waste, according to the institute’s 2023 survey.
“If you added $10 dedicated [fee] on top of that, $15 dedicated on top of that, all of a sudden, the funding that we are spending here in Houston for our trash and recycling picked up is quite comparable to what is being spent elsewhere,” said Potter.
Rolling out a monthly fee would help address a number of the current concerns at Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department, according to Potter.
“We could anticipate that [the fee] could go a long way to helping improve, buying additional trucks, getting additional crew members, the different things that are needed to help stand up better functioning trash and recycling pickup,” he said.
IN THE WORKS
City officials have considered instituting a garbage fee more and more in recent years.
Hassen, interim director of the waste department, said that the charge “is going to have to come in sooner or later,” but that he was currently focused on overhauling the department, he told KHOU last month.
Whitmire, Houston’s mayor, has also indicated that discussions regarding a trash fee would likely be part of city budget planning in 2026.
The City Council commissioned a study in 2024 to assess ways Houston could improve the department, including the potential impact of rolling out a fee.
The study’s findings will be reviewed, verified, and finalized by the Solid Waste Management Department before briefing the mayor on the results, one of the mayor’s spokespeople told KHOU.
Outside of Houston, a new trash law is coming into force as another US city braces for a $543 fee despite attempts to block it.
Meanwhile, Americans in five US cities are being warned to close their windows after trash service they’ve already paid for was suddenly stopped.
