The Houston City Council approved Wednesday a 15-year recycling contract with Spanish company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC).
According to a news release from the office of Mayor Sylvester Turner, the contract includes a five-year extension option that would stretch it to 20 years.
The City will pay FCC, which will accept glass and plastic bags, up to $36.8 million assuming the price for which the company can sell recyclables does not climb steeply.
However, if the value of recyclables on global markets goes up, thus increasing FCC’s profits, the City will pay less for the contract.
“The contract with FCC saves the taxpayers millions of dollars in recycling costs to the city. It expands the kinds of materials our Solid Waste Department will collect from curbsides once a week. It provides state-of-the-art technology that will be updated as we go along,” Turner stated in the news release.
FCC will take over the City’s recycling processing in about 14 months after completing construction of a $23 million processing plant that will employ 100 to 140 people in northeast Houston.
Once the plant is completed, FCC will give it to the City, which at that point will begin to accept glass in its green curbside collection containers, as well as plastic bags of the kind used in supermarkets and drug stores.
As reported by Houston Public Media and other local news outlets, the approval of the contract has been somewhat controversial during the past few months because the recycling company EcoHub has filed a lawsuit asking for City email records related to the approval process.
After considering proposals from competing recycling companies we got the best deal for Houston. The contract with FCC saves taxpayers millions in recycling costs. It expands the kinds of materials @HoustonTrash will collect from curbsides once a week.♻️ https://t.co/7jknCw79S2 pic.twitter.com/SFKWikKg4f
— City of Houston (@HoustonTX) January 10, 2018