Greenbacks for Green Bins: A Letter of Thanks and Clarification for West Coast Donation to City of Houston

To: Mr. Stephen Elliot, Author and Founder of the Progressive Reading Series, San Francisco, California

From: Andrea Afra, Assistant Minister of Propaganda for the City of Montrose, Texas

Re: Donation for recycling bins

Dear Mr. Elliot,
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the San Francisco Progressive Reading Series for raising money to donate to the City of Houston for the purchase of recycling bins, as it will benefit not only Houstonians but Montrosians alike. We apologize for the red tape you faced when trying to make the donation, however it was not known who the proper parties were to handle the contribution, then the mayor's legal department had to be consulted with which determined that your signature needed to be obtained for a waiver stating that the mayor's acceptance of your contribution was not an endorsement of any political candidate or party. Again, thank you for your donation of $1,250 as it will help offset the taxpayers' cost of the Mayor of Houston's $600,000 green marketing campaign that has yet to show any progress.

We are aware that you became familiar with Houston's recycling program after reading a July 2008 New York Times article reporting on a national study of the thirty most populous cities in the country published by Waste News that ranked San Francisco as the top performing recycling city at 69%, while Houston, the fourth largest city, came in last place at 2.6%. San Francisco not only generates good money from recycling but sets a prime example of how to succeed without depending on public funds to do so. A private company handles SF's recycling service and gives part of that money to the city. There is no charge for bins or for collection as all of the costs are more than covered by reselling the materials.

The NY Times article stated that: "...25,000 Houston residents have been waiting as long as 10 years to get recycling bins from the city...but the city says it cannot afford more bins." As you wrote in your article published by Huffington Post, you felt that you could help out with this problem and raised enough money to purchase 276 bins, at $6.25 per unit. Here again we must apologize for any confusion. If you would have read further into the article you would have come across the quote from Mayor Bill White saying, "We (Houstonians) have an independent streak that rebels against mandates or anything that seems trendy or hyped up."

What this translates to, Mr. Elliot, is "Houston doesn't give a shit about recycling." That is the overall attitude here. We are the energy capital of the world, yet we are the nation's worst recycling city. Over 160,000 residents have curbside recycling pick up service, but in many neighborhoods so few residents actually use the bins that it is not worth the cost of sending out the trucks. It won't get any easier than having someone come to your house twice a month and make your soda bottles and beer cans disappear, yet it is clear that people don't value the service enough to use it. Those who do utilize their bins run the risk of losing the service if their neighbors don't improve on their recycling efforts.

The citizens of Montrose would like to say that they are champion recyclers, leaders in the green movement, however we are just as apathetic as everyone else. We forget to put our bins out, we're not sure if we can recycle #2 plastics or #6, we don't even know our recycling day. Those who don't have city recycling pick up deem themselves exempt from having to recycle, which is bullshit. We will be the first ones to say that one shouldn't depend on their city for anything. There are plenty of ways to get rid of waste responsibly and we've devised a simple how-to guide for recycling in Montrose and Houston, and while it includes instructions on using public recycling services, we encourage the citizens to put other methods into practice as well.

Again, Mr. Elliot we'd like to thank you for your donation and hope to clear up the misconception that our atrocious performance may be contributed to by our need for more bins, when in truth our shoddy ranking is just a reflection of the value we place upon our environment. In the future, you may send contributions directly to the City of Montrose Recycling Fund which goes towards the purchase of unopened glass and aluminum containers of beer and other spirits so that they will be consumed and disposed of properly by responsible citizens, aka the Mayor and his loyal staff.

Our sincerest thanks and regrets,
The City of Montrose