Houston could benefit from on-demand heavy waste pickup. This is how it works

The Houston Solid Waste Management Department is working to develop an on-demand heavy waste pickup program as the department looks for new ways to curb illegal dumping, said Mark Wilfalk, director of the department, during the Wednesday’s budget hearing.

During collection months, a crew of trucks goes from house to house looking for heavy trash, Wilfalk told the Chronicle after the hearing. However, solid waste often only affects a handful of homes that require massive trash collection, he said.

“There has to be a better solution in 2024 rather than just going down every street,” Wilfalk said.

Under the new program, which is still in its early stages of development, solid waste employees would not travel around looking for heavy waste to collect. Instead, the department would only send crews to pick up heavy trash after someone calls for help and the department identifies where the trash is located.

The new approach to collection would not only increase the department’s efficiency, Wilfalk said, but it would also allow it to reallocate staff to other areas where it might fall behind, like standard trash collection or recycling.

It could also generate financial benefits for the department through fuel savings – with fewer drivers seeking heavy waste to collect, Wilfalk added.

It’s still too early to tell how many drivers will be removed from heavy-waste routes and placed on other routes, Wilfalk said. The department wants to start the pilot program in the southwest part of the city, where there are fewer homes, and then consider expansion steps in more densely populated areas.

Wilfalk hopes Solid Waste can launch the program by the end of the year.

Solid Waste has faced funding and staffing issues for years, impacting its ability to provide services such as on-time trash and recycling pickup. Nearly 30,000 people called 311 about a missed trash pickup in 2023, making it the second most criticized issue among Houstonians.

The lack of funds and personnel to manage major solid waste services has greatly affected its ability to address second-hand problems such as illegal dumping. Houston City Council members have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to combat illegal dumping, using funds from their district departments to create “hot teams” to carry out rapid cleanup.