Sep 11 2024 - Nov 24 2024
H-E-B Community Recycling Investments
The H-E-B Community Recycling Investments program helps communities build sustainable recycling opportunities
The H-E-B Community Recycling Investments Program was established in 2021 to address recycling access in underserved Texas communities.
Through the Keep Texas Recycling (KTR) program, Keep Texas Beautiful and H-E-B work together to identify target communities to enhance their local recycling efforts through strategic investments in infrastructure and education. The H-E-B Community Recycling Investments program helps communities build sustainable recycling opportunities and offers education and promotion about recycling to increase community participation and decrease contamination.
The Keep Texas Recycling program provides technical assistance by identifying communities in need of recycling infrastructure and support, assists with identifying and obtaining the necessary equipment and funding, and implementing the processes and education required to start and sustain successful drop-off recycling programs. Collaboration is one of the key factors to a successful project, and the program works closely with local elected officials, Council of Governments, school districts, Keep Texas Beautiful affiliates, and community leaders. The program gives special consideration for projects in areas that do not have access to recycling or are ready to expand the types of materials collected.
Projects
Burleson County
Pop. 18,000 $38,400 investment
Project:
To build a new Cardboard Recycling Center providing recycling access and offsetting solid waste costs for the county. Burleson County’s grant supported the construction of a three sided recycling building to serve as the County’s Recycling Center. They also purchased a cardboard baler with the funds provided by the Community Recycling Investment.
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Keep McAllen Beautiful also invested in BigBelly trash units to help increase trash capacity and keep it off the streets.
Pharr
Pop. 80,000 $20,000 Investment
Project Goal:
To improve the efficiency of UBC collection and expand capacity to accept more material.
Keep Texas Beautiful worked with Pharr to identify the need for a dedicated baler for their UBC (used beverage cans), opening up space for more collection. Pharr also invested in education and outreach to the community. They purchased education flyers, magnets and backpacks to share at outreach events. They distributed materials to 80 students in the school district, and to volunteers at their Trash Bash cleanup events.
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This mural depicts two of the endangered fauna as cute cartoon characters and encourages visitors, “For the love of the river, pick up your litter!” These characters will also be featured in a youth education and activity book currently in production. Other San Marcos projects include a gabion wall constructed behind a busy truck stop that was polluting one of their major feeder creeks and conducting various hot spot cleanups and litter audits throughout their community. They also partnered with the local university, Texas State University, to spread more awareness and increase litter and recycling programs on campus.
Houston-Galveston Region
In the Houston-Galveston region KTB lead projects concentrated on the bayou system throughout the city. We partnered with Buffalo Bayou Partnership to install boom systems to capture and divert trash flowing through the area. These materials were then vacuumed up by a specialized vessel run by the Partnership.
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Litter collected from this and other methods throughout the region was audited and studied by Black Cat GIS to create a methodology that will be shared with peers and students throughout Texas. KTB also partnered with the Galveston Bay Foundation to improve and promote the Galveston Bay Action Network (GBAN). GBAN (www.galvbay.org) allows citizens to report litter hot spots, abandoned vessels and traps, illegal dumping and other pollution in the four counties that surround Galveston Bay. Through a questionnaire, reports are automatically sent to the appropriate agency for cleanup and action. Improvements will help make the site more user friendly and promotion will spread the word to increase citizen awareness and usage of the site. This will, in turn, help increase citizen action taken to clean up the bay and keep it beautiful!
All Regions
KTB provided free waterway cleanup supplies to groups in all three regions. These included items such as gloves, sunscreen, litter pick up tools and mesh bags branded with Trash Free Waters education and mention that they were provided by funding received from an EPA Trash Free Waters grant. In return, these groups provided valuable data such as location cleaned, amount of trash collected and types of trash determined through auditing activities.
2022 Impact
Trash Free Waters Projects
36
Cleanup Events
37,358
Pounds of Litter Removed
1,158
Volunteers
9,000
Pounds of Litter Diverted
