City of Houston Compostable Bags Required April 5, 2010

Join the City of Houston and Go Green! Effective April 5, 2010, if you are going to bag up yard waste, it must be in an approved compostable bag, displaying the City of Houston logo.

A regular trash bag can take over 100 years to decompose! But when it comes to yard waste, like grass clippings and leaves, you have choices: grasscycling, composting, or the use of compostable bags. So why fill up the landfills? By diverting this material from area landfills, the city anticipates saving at least $1.5 million dollars annually while preserving the environment and valuable landfill space. The Solid Waste Department (SWD) will use these savings to add more Houstonians to the Automated Recycling Program.

Please go to the SWD web site at www.houstonsolidwaste.org to find a current list of retailers and more information regarding the compostable bag program.