A Houston woman, Brandy Deason, who recycles regularly, was surprised to learn that not all recycled items actually make it to a recycling center. To investigate, she placed Apple tracking devices in her recycling to see where they ended up. This led to a surprising discovery about the city’s recycling process.
Deason’s skepticism stemmed from Houston’s new recycling program, which accepts some types of plastic not typically considered recyclable. Her experiment revealed that nearly all the bags with trackers ended up at a facility called Wright Waste Management, which raised her concerns further.
Houston Woman’s Tracking Devices Uncover Flaws in City’s Recycling ProgramCBS News found that this facility, Wright Waste Management, had failed several Harris County fire safety inspections and wasn’t approved to store plastic waste. When confronted with drone footage showing large piles of plastic waste at the site, Houston’s Director of Solid Waste Management, Mark Wilfalk, acknowledged the site’s poor condition and admitted they would need to investigate the fire safety issues.
Wilfalk also revealed that since late 2022, the city had collected 250 tons of plastic, none of which had been recycled yet. Instead, the plastic waste is being stockpiled, with the city still uncertain about what will eventually happen to it.