New Solid Waste director outlines fixes for route, fleet and recycling delays

Houston’s Service Delivery Committee heard a detailed status update July 23 from the newly confirmed director of the Solid Waste Management Department on steps to address persistent collection delays, aging trucks and a high recycling contamination rate.

Director Hassan told the committee she reviewed operations during her first 90 days and immediately formed a three-person administration team to process service requests and customer inquiries that had accumulated in the 311 queue. “The first thing I wanted to do was come in and get a gauge on our employees, the morale, how we were performing, what we can do to improve, and what we can do to deliver quality service to the city,” Hassan said.

Hassan said the department serves roughly 400,000 homes with about 389 employees and an annual operating budget of about $101,000,000. She reported garbage collection was “on schedule” but recycling was two to four days behind, heavy trash about two weeks behind and yard waste being collected along with heavy trash.

To reduce pockets of missed service she described a route rebalancing plan. The goal is to reduce most routes toward an operational target of about 950 homes per route; many routes previously served more than 1,300 homes. Hassan said the department consolidated four geographic quadrants into two (north/south) to deploy trucks more efficiently.

Hassan also reported chronic fleet problems. She said most days the department is operating with far fewer trucks than needed: "I've only since I've been here, I've only been able to use approximately the highest number I think was like 71% of my entire fleet. I'm averaging 38 to 39%." She added roughly 32% of the fleet is older than seven years and many vehicles have more than 150,000 miles. The department has 219 trucks on the books and uses the same vehicles for garbage, recycling and heavy-trash routes.

On routing technology, Hassan said the software contracted to map daily routes exists but does not reliably reconcile multi‑day partial routes when crews fall behind, which contributes to missed lifts and confusion over where a route left off. She said crews and dispatch lacked a consistent internal work‑order system; as a stopgap Hassan created a centralized container inventory and delivery team and moved cans from multiple service centers into a single site for distribution.

Recycling processing and contamination were central topics in the discussion. Deputy Director Veronica Lozama told council members the department’s contamination estimate has risen from earlier figures and is now “closer to 46 percent.” Lozama said rejected loads are relatively uncommon and that a rejected load typically exceeds about 60 percent contamination, but that much of the contaminated material still reaches landfill at the city’s expense.

Council members pressed for clearer education and for the recycling contractor to meet its public‑education obligations. Hassan and Lozama said the department is negotiating additional drop‑off capacity because the city currently relies primarily on one material recovery facility (FCC), and a secondary facility known as ITR recently closed. Hassan said the department has an active bid to secure an additional location and is considering converting a new city transfer station (opening around December near Kelly Drive on the northwest side) to accept recycling to reduce travel times and wait lines.

Staffing and capital needs drew multiple questions. Hassan said the department has identified about 30 city employees with commercial driver licenses who were not previously used as drivers and that it believes it needs roughly 30 additional staff and about 70 more trucks to reach operational goals (her on‑the‑street target is roughly 50 additional working trucks plus about 20 in reserve).

Council members repeatedly requested better communication to council offices and the public, daily transparency about which districts were affected by missed routes, and an expanded education campaign to lower contamination. Council member Alcorn said a contamination rate near 46 percent is “really, really sad,” and urged low‑cost interventions such as clear labels or stickers on recycling carts.

Public comments focused on localized heavy‑trash and tire collection failures. Residents described months‑long delays in specific neighborhoods, narrow streets blocked by accumulating piles, and frustration with inconsistent enforcement or follow‑up on tagged piles. Leticia Gutierrez of Air Alliance Houston requested that the presentation materials and future briefings include the Houston Recycling Collaborative so council and the public understand contract risks and the relationship between local programs and market realities.

Hassan closed by saying the men and women of solid waste are committed to improving service and asked residents and council to be patient while operations are rebalanced. The committee did not take formal votes on policy or new spending during the meeting; council members asked staff for further cost‑of‑service estimates and follow‑up information ahead of the next budget cycle.