Green Garbage Management in Your Houston Apartment

If you're relocating to Houston from another city, you may have once enjoyed curbside recycling or even a municipal composting service. Sadly, the Houston waste disposal system does not offer such convenient ways to take care of the environment when you take out your trash. For anyone who's used to recycling or composting, and especially for the very eco-minded, putting out so much of your garbage for the regular collection can be a bit of a shock. There are still ways to live green in Houston, though. Depending on how much time and dedication you have, you may decide to go with one of these Houston waste disposal options:

Recycling

Houston's Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD), the people who pick up curbside garbage and empty apartment complex dumpsters each week, don't offer curbside recycling or compostable material collection. There is recycling in Houston, though. You just have to take your recyclable materials to one of their three neighborhood recycling centers. Houston residents (with a Texas ID and a utility bill to prove residency) can drop off many kinds of recyclables up to four times each month. Go to the SWMD web site for a list of Houston recycling centers, what materials they accept, and what days and hours they're open. Before your first trip to the center, ask your landlord or property manager whether your apartment complex has a recycling program. As we've  mentioned before, more and more properties are helping their residents go green by organizing building-wide recycling collections. If your complex doesn't have a program yet, and you're truly dedicated to living green, you may want to talk with your manager about starting a program, yourself.

For the Super-Green: Composting

Earth lovers with backyards can reduce their landfill use even more by starting a compost pile, but what's an apartment dweller to do? It actually is possible—and safe and not smelly—to turn food scraps into fertilizer inside an apartment. Vermiculture, also called worm composting, is the practice of keeping a bin (usually a large plastic storage tub) full of earthworms, and feeding the worms organic garbage, including fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, bread, and paper. The resulting worm castings are rich in nutrients, and make excellent fertilizer for plants of all kinds. Interested? This site will tell you everything you need to know to get started, and more. Some may think it's a bit extreme to keep a bin full of worms in their home, but very green-minded apartment dwellers will feel much better knowing that so much of their garbage is staying out of landfills.

This leaves only the question of what to do with all that rich worm-made compost when you live in an apartment. If you're growing houseplants or a balcony garden, your worm castings will be excellent fertilizer for them. If you have no plants, or you end up with more fertilizer than you can use on your own, contact one of Houston's community garden projects, like the St. Charles Street Urban Community Garden, Urban Harvest Community Gardens, or the University of Houston's Campus Community Garden. These urban gardens often accept donations of compost.