Somewhere between five and eight million cubic yards of trash are on the streets of Houston, according to Derek Mebane of the City of Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department.
Picking up such massive amounts of garbage requires strategy, and some of that plan is slowly being revealed.
Watch the video above for a chat with Mebane and a Clear Lake resident, who gutted his home after Tropical Storm Harvey.
Here’s what we else know about the trash situation:
- Right now, the only city solid waste pickup service happening is garbage. All others, including curbside recycling, are temporarily suspended.
- The city is deploying city trucks and contractors to neighborhoods organized by zones and sub-zones.
- They’re creating dozens of temporary trash sites around the city avoid long drives back to a landfill.
- Part of the plan is to do two-to-three “passes” of each neighborhood to pick up debris.
- This past Wednesday, the Houston City Council approved a $60 million boost to their efforts.
- The City of Houston is planning to open an online resource with updated information about debris removal.
