Houston resident Brandy Deason was dubious about her city’s “all plastic accepted” recycling program and used Apple AirTags to determine where Houston residents’ plastic waste actually ended up.
Deason, who regularly recycles her packaging and other waste, began to have doubts about the city’s plastic recycling program, which boasted of being able to accept even types of plastic that aren’t normally considered recyclable.
Deason decided to investigate, so she bought a set of AirTags and placed them inside her plastic recycling bags. Nearly all of the bags she tracked ended up at a company called Wright Waste Management, located in nearby Harris County.
The problem? Wright Waste Management is not approved to store plastic waste and has failed three fire inspections.
CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy calls Deason “the James Bond of plastic recycling” for her actions. Aerial footage showed that the waste management facility had mountains of plastic waste as tall as 10 feet high.
Deason said she thought that the company simply storing the unrecyclable plastic waste was “kind of strange,” so she contacted Houston’s Director of Solid Waste Management Mark Wilfalk.
When shown the drone footage, Wilfalk admitted “it’s not the most desirable-looking site.” He promised Deason he’d investigate the problems that caused Wright Waste Management to fail the fire inspections.
Wilfalk later acknowledged that while the city has collected some 250 tons of plastic since the end of 2022, none of it has been recycled as of yet.
“We’re gonna stockpile it for now,” he admitted. “We’re gonna see what happens.”
It turns out that Houston is stockpiling it because it’s waiting for a promised sorting facility to open. When it does, the stored recycling will be sorted and treated. The company that owns the sorting facility, Cyclix, says it has developed a method to create recyclable pellets out of the plastic waste.
Unfortunately, only a very small number of these pellets can be recycled into new plastic. Most of the pellets will be used as fuel that will be burned, adding to carbon emissions.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that converting “solid waste to fuels, fuel ingredients, or energy” is not recycling.
Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is investigating Exxon, accusing the industry of “a half-century of deception” about recycling.
(Image Credit: CBS News)