Litter cleanup. Illegal dumping abatement. Storm drain maintenance. Encampment debris removal. Waterway cleanup. Landfill pressure. Neighborhood nuisance enforcement.
Those costs add up fast, and taxpayers like you are footing the bill.
Texans for Clean Water released a report examining Houston-area cleanup and abatement costs revealing just how widespread and expensive the problem has become. Local governments, utilities, nonprofits, and cleanup crews are spending enormous amounts of time and money removing waste from streets, bayous, drainage systems, public spaces, and neighborhoods.
Much of what is being collected is made up of valuable recyclable materials like aluminum cans, plastic beverage bottles, and glass containers. That is the absurdity of the current system: Texas is spending public resources cleaning up materials that already have economic value.
Beverage containers are some of the most recyclable and economically valuable materials in the waste stream. When properly recovered, aluminum, PET plastic, and glass can be reused again and again to support domestic manufacturing and stronger supply chains.
Instead, too much of that material is ending up as litter or buried in landfills while communities absorb the cleanup costs downstream.
This is not just an environmental issue. It is an economic efficiency issue.
That is why Texans for Clean Water continues supporting market-driven recycling refund systems that increase recovery rates, reduce litter, strengthen domestic manufacturing feedstock, and operate without relying on taxpayer funding.
Other states have already shown these systems can work — dramatically increasing recovery while easing the burden on local governments and waterways.
Texas should not be wasting valuable materials while taxpayers pay to clean them up.
You can read the Houston report here.
Thank you for standing with Texans for Clean Water in the fight for cleaner waterways, stronger supply chains, and smarter recycling systems for Texas.
Sincerely,
Joe Trotter
Texans For Clean Water
