Video: KTRK 13 News
Vanessa Piña, Houston Press
A day after Mayor Annise Parker jubilantly announced the city had won $1 million by being a finalist in a municipal-improvements contest, experts held a press conference to say the city’s winning “One Bin for All” recycling project is bad for the environment.
Experts like Tyson Sowell of the Texas Campaign for the Environment and Dr. Robert Bullard, Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University, said people want to recycle and are interested in the concept, but having a new system that does not assure a positive outcome is not the way to go.
The One Bin for All system calls for residents to throw all their garbage into a single bin that will be sorted at a still-to-be-built facility that critics say will cost $100 million. Supporters of the idea say it increases recycling because it’s not dependent on residents separating out bottles, plastic and paper from their other garbage.
But opponents say such facilities have failed in other cities and have not proven able to produce quality recyclable material.
“For someone who has done research and written more than 18 books on this stuff, it is rather odd that we would be opting for an unproven, risky idea,” Bullard said at the press conference.
Yes, this new system will attempt to increase recyclables in the city, those at the press conference said, but with that comes risk, like financing.
(Read more of this story at the Houston Press)
LOCAL AREA HEADLINES:
- Officials warn about fire risk due to dry conditions
across Houston area (KPRC 2 News) - Scathing report Into problems at Harris County Probation
Department (KRIV 26 News) - Dad’s cancer struggles inspires Houston man to become doctor (KHOU 11 News)
- Doctor sentenced for role in Medicare scheme (KPRC 2 News)
- North Forest ISD Makes One More Appeal to State to Stay Alive (Houston Press)
- Dozens gather to remember fallen Houston firefighters (KPRC 2 News)
- Cleveland High School scene of active shooter drill (KPRC 2 News)
- New UH Student Club Wants Guns On Campus (KUHF Public Radio)
STATE, NATION & WORLD:
- State Water Plan Advances in Texas Legislature (Texas Tribune)
- No Algebra II? Great for students, terrible for Texas workforce (Chron.com)
- According to Latino Educational Group, Dan Patrick Hopes to Limit Ethnic Studies at Texas Universities (Houston Press)
- Hospitals dispute who should pay for needy patients, with taxpayers
in the middle (Austin Statesman) - Despite politics, ATF makes some gun show arrests (Chron.com)
- Improving Healthcare, One Search At A Time (NPR)
- BP seeks to block Gulf spill settlement payments (AP)
- NRA gearing up to oppose U.N. arms trade treaty (Washington Post)