Houston homes with single-stream recycling could double

More than 100,000 Houston residents will be added to the city's single-stream recycling program by the end of the calendar year, doubling the number of households receiving the 96-gallon green bins.

Mayor Annise Parker made the announcement in rolling out her budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The proposed budget, which must be approved by City Council, is $4.5 billion, including enterprise funds such as the city airport and utility systems, representing an increase of 6.4 percent over the current spending plan.

The proposed general fund budget, supported chiefly by property and sales taxes, is $2.2 billion, an increase of 4.9 percent over the current budget but an increase of just 2.4 percent over projected spending for the year.

"I feel like I spent my first term in office plugging holes in a leaky boat, but the boat stayed afloat and now we have the funds to repair the hull, paint the boat, put up new sail and we're moving forward," Parker said. "This allows me, rather than playing defense, to help shape the priorities going forward."

About 35,000 homes will receive single-stream recycling in July, allowing residents to recycle glass curbside, in addition to the newspapers, magazines, aluminum cans, cardboard and plastic accepted through the city's curbside 18-gallon bin program. Another 70,000 homes will receive the service later this year.

The plan will expand the service to about 55 percent of the city's households, Parker said.

"It actually triples recycling rates in the neighborhoods where we roll it out," she said. "It's the right thing to do for the planet, it's a great thing to do for our neighborhoods, but it also makes long-term financial sense to preserve landfill space."