Houston Resilience Committee Meeting on Recycling Contamination and Solid Waste Management - May 7, 2026
Houston Resilience Committee Meeting on Recycling Contamination and Solid Waste Management - May 7, 2026
On Thursday, May 7, 2026, the Houston City Council Resilience Committee, chaired by Councilmember Twyla Carter, held a meeting focused on recycling contamination and solid waste management. The committee heard a presentation from FCC Environmental Services, the city's recycling processor, regarding the high contamination rate in Houston's recycling stream. Public speakers addressed the airport master plan, a university resilience course, and solid waste funding. No formal votes were taken, but committee members committed to follow up with the Solid Waste Department on contract amendments and public education efforts.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Rich Herwick, Vice President of Strategy at H21000, presented a conceptual master plan for Bush Intercontinental Airport, emphasizing the need for infrastructure improvements to accommodate projected passenger growth. He noted that a meeting with airport leadership was scheduled for May 22, 2026.
- Alex Landon, Professor of Practice at the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering, invited committee members to attend final presentations on May 29, 2026, from students in a course on coastal resilience, comparing Houston and the Netherlands.
- Bill Kelly, on behalf of Environment Texas, expressed support for the proposed administrative fee for solid waste in the mayor's budget. He highlighted the need for increased public education and outreach, citing a 42% contamination rate and a 16% diversion rate (less than half the national average). He advocated for reliable service, transfer stations, and proper funding to reduce contamination and worker burnout.
- William Martinez submitted a letter regarding personal experiences with gang stalking and gaslighting at a facility in Deer Park, requesting assistance.
Discussion Items
- Presentation by FCC Environmental Services: Cesar Garcia (General Manager) and Andrea Rodriguez (VP of Engineering) presented on the contamination crisis. They reported that Houston's contamination rate is 42% (based on an April 13, 2026 audit), well above the national average of 30% and the 25% threshold in the contract. Common contaminants include electronics, styrofoam, tanglers (e.g., straps, wires), batteries, and propane tanks, which cause fires, equipment damage, and downtime. The financial impact in 2025 was approximately $2.5 million due to higher processing, maintenance, and disposal costs, plus lost revenue. FCC has been seeking a contract amendment with the Solid Waste Department to recoup some losses, but only one meeting (in January 2026) has been held, with no follow-up.
- Councilmember Questions and Discussion:
- Councilmember Martinez asked about the impact of the proposed solid waste administrative fee; FCC noted that fees often reduce contamination.
- Councilmember Castex Tatum's office inquired about the status of contract amendment discussions; FCC stated they have been unable to get a second meeting despite attempts.
- Councilmember Ramirez's office asked about contamination trends, education efforts, and which contaminants are most dangerous. FCC identified propane tanks and batteries as top hazards.
- Councilmember Alcorn's office asked about the RFP information on contamination rates; FCC confirmed the city provided lower rates during bidding.
- Councilmember Peck's office asked if FCC could participate in community events; FCC agreed to consider setting up booths.
- Chair Carter requested FCC send educational materials in multiple languages for council offices to distribute.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken.
- Committee members committed to follow up with the Solid Waste Department regarding the contract amendment and communication issues raised by FCC.
- The committee agreed to distribute FCC's educational materials to help reduce contamination.
- The next Resilience Committee meeting was scheduled for June 4, 2026, at 10 a.m.
Meeting Transcript
Everyone today, Thursday, May 7th on this National Day of Prayer. Thank you all for being here. Started my morning off at a prayer breakfast, which is really nice. Good way to start the day. I am Twyla Carter, Chair of the Resilience Committee. We have a number of uh council offices represented today. We've got staff from Councilmember Castillo, Councilmember Salinas, Alcorn, Peck, Castex Tatum, Thomas, Ramirez, Jackson, and Cayman. Today, I would like to certainly uh welcome our partners in Solid Waste FCC Environmental Services, had the opportunity to tour the facility a while back and thought they would be a great presenter to talk to us about recycling and specifically as relates to contamination. I would encourage anyone to go out and take a tour of that facility. It's it's pretty eye-opening. So I'd like to welcome on behalf of FCC Environmental, Andrea Rodriguez, VP of Engineering and Post Collections, and Cesar Garcia, the general manager. Come on down, join us. Y'all sure you don't want to sit down? You want a stool? Good to stand. I bet you do a lot of standing throughout your day. Thank y'all for being here. Thank you. All right, good morning, everyone. I see a lot of familiar faces. Some of y'all tour our facility. And if you haven't, you're more than welcome to come by and uh and tour our facility. Um thank you for having us here today, Councilmember Carter and everyone else. Uh again, my name is Cesar Garcia. I'm the general manager at FCC, Houston Murph. With me again, it's Andrea Rodriguez, our uh vice president of engineering and post-collection businesses for FCC. So we're here today to talk about a few uh pressing challenges that I would say that we have in our uh Houston Recycling Program. The contamination and the recycling stream. We would like to discuss what's causing it and better what we can do to fix it. But before that, I do want to give a quick overview of FCC and who we are. FCC has been providing uh waste manager waste management services since 1911. Our first facility was opened in 1964, and as of today, we have over 200 recycling operations worldwide. We've been partners with the city of Houston since 2014, starting with our biosolids contract, and now we've been processing Houstonians recyclables since 2019. And we're proud of that. We're proud of serving the city of Houston and every single residential customer under this contract. Within the first year of the facilities operations, we received the National and Waste Recycling Association Award for the best recycling facility in North America. A big part of it was due to having state of the art technology that we continue to invest in. As you can see with the contract, it's a it's a 15-year term in the contract. We do accept cardboard, paper, plastics, metals, and even glass. Something that wasn't recycled uh before our contract. While the contract allows up to 25% contamination, uh Houston's actual rate is closer to 40%. Uh common contaminants, I would say would be electronics, styrofoam, tanglers, and hoses. Thank you. Uh, as well as wires, textiles, bag recyclables, and hazardous materials. Um, a few examples of these uh tanglers would be something like heavy-duty uh ratchet straps, something that can potentially damage our equipment, as you can see in this photo, and of course, causing us to shut down. Um aside from that, we also have uh contaminants that shouldn't be allowed in the recycling bin, which are batteries, lift amount batteries, and uh propane tanks, which of course they're explosives. Um here we have another example of a fire we actually had right on our tipping floor, where we have all of the materials uh combined. A lot of it is fiber, paper, and cardboard. So you would think, you know, that's um that's just filled to the fire. Another thing that I would say gives us a problem would be something easy like tarps.
openpublica.com