Like many Houston-area residents, Selina Valdez woke up on the morning of May 18 in a dark house without an alarm clock, air-conditioning or hot coffee.
As she drove to work to celebrate the first anniversary of the East Aldine Neighborhood Depository and Recycling Center, Valdez was greeted by the noise of battery-powered boom-boxes blaring Tejano music and gas-powered chain saws. Valdez, the coordinator of the recycling center, rapidly realized that plans to celebrate with cupcakes and balloons would need to be boosted with plenty of cold water and Gatorade, as the residents of East Aldine began to recover from a strange and strong spring storm – a derecho—that left eight dead, caused billions in property damage and left hundreds of thousands without power.
Fierce winds had crumpled giant transmission towers, downed tree limbs, torn apart fences and damaged roofs across the city of Houston. Windows in downtown skyscrapers littered the streets for weeks.
For residents of East Aldine, the year-old Recycling Center at 2789 Hopper Road became the place to go. Working with the four-person crew at the center, the community loaded 460 cubic yards of debris from the storm into massive recycling bins, clearing the neighborhood of dangerous and unsightly waste in just two days. Two more massive containers of debris were filled the following week.
East Aldine area neighbors gratefully grabbed cupcakes and cold drinks and went right back to work.
In the year since the East Aldine Management District opened the Neighborhood Depository and Recycling Center, more than one-quarter of 1 million pounds of recyclable materials has been collected for recycling. It is the first and only such recycling center to be operated by a Management District in Texas. And it is working closely with several business partners to ensure that waste products are being recycled.
The cost of the recycling center is $330, 040 annually. During the first year, more than 2,140 area residents have used the center to dispose of paper, plastic, glass, tires, old furniture, yard waste and some construction materials. The center is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and appointments are required by calling 713-454-7185.
An online appointment system is in the works and will be announced soon. But the telephone appointments will remain open, so that residents can schedule their drop-offs.
Valdez said the center is part of an effort to “save the earth,” by reusing materials that would otherwise pollute the environment, wind up in landfills, or worse, litter the community of East Aldine. (Just recycling tires alone has contributed greatly to neighborhood beautification.)
Because the community is in unincorporated Harris County, there is no regularly scheduled heavy waste clean-up. That has contributed to a long-standing neighborhood problem of illegal dumping sites for tires, mattresses, and old furniture.
With the Recycling Center, East Aldine residents have a place to drop off such unwanted items. That’s contributing to neighborhood beautification.
Because of leadership by the East Aldine Management District and other community “VIPs,” Valdez said the new recycling center has been able to form strategic business partnerships with several area businesses that are taking advantage of the recycled materials. Those include Strategic Materials Inc., which takes glass and paper goods; GFL (Green for Life), which takes plastic recyclables); Prestige Metals, which takes metal; Living Earth, which transforms yard waste into “natural mulch” sold at home and garden stores, as well as On Site Tire Disposal, which is the nation’s second largest recycler of used tires.
“Because of the leadership of the East Aldine Management District, we are doing our part to help save the earth,” Valdez said. “And I feel like our job is to is to educate to make people feel like they’ve done something good when they get here,” Valdez said.
“Our goal is to help people feel better for having come here. It’s a welcoming place, and we want people to feel special.
In one instance, Valdez said, a family in East Aldine had been meaning to get rid of more than 20 old tires for several years. They just kept piling up, as family members bought new tires that were installed by their father. There is a 4-tire limit for deposits at the recycling center, but repeat visits are allowed.
“The first step to recovery is to clean up – that’s true in life, as well. When your life is a mess, you’ve got to clean it up. Then, all of a sudden, you can see better and clearer. And then, you know you’re on the road to recovery,” Valdez said. “When those tree limbs and torn-up fences are gone, that blue tarp on the roof starts to look pretty good. And you realize, tomorrow really is going to be a better day.”
