Texas city flooded with mountain of plastic recycling that hasn't been touched in a year

A Texas city has been flooded with mountains of plastic waste that hasn't been touched in a year and a half as the facility continues to fail fire inspections. 

Wright Waste Management, located 20 miles outside of downtown Houston, has hundreds of pounds of plastic trash just sitting behind a locked gate. 

The garbage hasn't been touched in more than a year and a half, according to CBS News. 

To tackle the ongoing plastic pollution problem, the Houston Recycling Collaboration - made up of the City of Houston, ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, Cyclyx International and FCC Environmental Services - was born. 

It was supposed to be able to take any plastic and either recycle it mechanically - the traditional way - or burn it chemically into a new plastic or fuel. 

However, 20 months into the program, environmental groups found that the plastic dropped off by residents has yet to be chemically recycled, according to CBS News. 

Cyclyx International is supposed to open another sorting plant in mid-2025, but for now, the pollution is piling up at the Wright facility, which has failed to pass several fire safety inspections, the outlet said. 

The facility does not have the operational permit it needs to hold hazardous materials, flammable and combustible liquids, LP gas, and miscellaneous combustibles. It also failed its fire inspection through Harris County Fire three times, CBS and Inside Climate News discovered. 

Wright Waste Management, located 20 miles outside of downtown Houston, has hundreds of pounds of plastic trash just sitting behind a locked gate. The garbage hasn't been touched in more than a year and a half

The company lacked fire lanes and had no means to control a blaze if it started, documents said. 

More drama ensued after FCC Environmental Services pulled out of the project because it 'does not want its reputation and image involved in such irregular and risky practices,' CEO Inigo Sanz said in a letter. 

It said it was against solely chemically recycling plastic and that the Houston Recycling Collaboration was meant to 'promote both mechanical and chemical recycling.' 

It also said it couldn't support just storing hundreds of pounds of plastics at a facility while it waits for chemical recycling to exist. 

The Wright facility submitted a notice of intent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to operate as a solid waste recycling facility from just a cardboard recycler in September 2023. 

It was supposed to be able to take any plastic and either recycle it mechanically - the traditional way - or burn it chemically into a new plastic or fuel. However, 20 months later, environmental groups found that the plastic dropped off by residents has yet to be chemically recycled

Their application is still 'under review,' according to TCEQ spokesperson Ricky Richter. 

When CBS asked about the fire inspections, the owner, Stratton Wright, referred them to Cyclyx, which said Wright 'doesn't represent us, and they are currently a temporary solution before we can get [our] facility operational.' 

However, Exxon Mobil's chemical recycling plant in Baytown has been operational and it claims to have processed 60million pounds of plastic waste and hopes to hit one billion pounds. 

Despite that, the US Environmental Protection Agency said chemical recycling should not be considered recycling at all. 

Critics argue that chemical recycling is just a promise to keep plastic production high and to avoid actually fixing the pollution problem, according to CBS News. 

The facility does not have the operational permit it needs to hold hazardous materials, flammable and combustible liquids, LP gas, and miscellaneous combustibles. It also failed its fire inspection through Harris County Fire three times

'Recycling may be a very, very small portion of the solution, but it is not going to solve this monumental plastic pollution problem that we have,' Veena Singla, an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University, told CBS News. 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is investigating Exxon for its alleged deception in public messaging regarding pollution and recycling and the 'myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis.' 

However, Exxon points to its numbers and says it can't be a myth with 60million pounds already taken care of. 

'So to say that's a myth, when we're actually doing it, I'm not sure I'm aligned with that,' Ray Mastroleo, Exxon's global market development manager for advanced recycling, told CBS News. 

More trash is expected to hit the Wright facility as the Houston Recycling Collaboration is expanding customer drop-off locations from one to right last April.