Litter & Materials Archives - The Texas Dispatch

Texas Landfill-Fee Account Holds $94.8 Million After a Hurricane Cleanup Draw, and State Law Lists What It Can Pay For

Every ton of trash buried in a Texas landfill carries a state fee, and the account that collects it ended the last fiscal year with $94.8 million available, down from $154 million a year earlier after the state sent $50 million to hurricane debris removal, according to the annual financial report of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state’s environmental regulator.

The Texas Dispatch · Nov 4, 2026

States With Container-Recovery Systems See About Half the Bottle and Can Litter, but a Beer Maker Warns of Lost Sales

Bottles and cans make up about half of the litter volunteers pick up in states that use a container-recovery system as in states that do not, according to an analysis of 2023 cleanup data.

The Texas Dispatch · Oct 27, 2026

Two Texas Counties Throw Away More Value in Bottles and Cans Than They Spend Cleaning Up Litter

McLennan and Nueces counties landfill or litter roughly 390 million beverage containers a year, by a Texas Dispatch estimate, and at the scrap prices Texas A&M researchers used that material was worth about $7.9 million.

The Texas Dispatch · Oct 20, 2026

Texas Cities Keep Paying for the Same Cleanup Every Month, a Dispatch Review Finds

Corpus Christi code officers open between roughly 870 and 1,800 new cases a month, and the caseload never tapers.

The Texas Dispatch · Oct 13, 2026

Beach Stickers, Garbage Bills and Volunteers Pay for Texas Litter Cleanup, Records Show

Beachgoers will cover more of Nueces County's beach upkeep starting in January, when the annual parking sticker rises from $12 to $20, the first increase since 2004.

The Texas Dispatch · Oct 8, 2026

Texas Beach Volunteers Removed Nearly 111,000 Pounds of Trash This Year

Volunteers cleared nearly 111,000 pounds of trash from Texas beaches in this year's two coastwide Adopt-A-Beach cleanups, but the state's announcements do not say how much of it was bottles and cans, the litter a Texas advocacy group says a the right incentives and the economics could keep off the sand.

The Texas Dispatch · Oct 1, 2026

Litter & Materials

Texas Landfill-Fee Account Holds $94.8 Million After a Hurricane Cleanup Draw, and State Law Lists What It Can Pay For

States With Container-Recovery Systems See About Half the Bottle and Can Litter, but a Beer Maker Warns of Lost Sales

Two Texas Counties Throw Away More Value in Bottles and Cans Than They Spend Cleaning Up Litter

Texas Cities Keep Paying for the Same Cleanup Every Month, a Dispatch Review Finds

Beach Stickers, Garbage Bills and Volunteers Pay for Texas Litter Cleanup, Records Show

Texas Beach Volunteers Removed Nearly 111,000 Pounds of Trash This Year

Texas Cities and Counties Can’t Say What Litter and Dumping Cost Them

Volunteers Clear a Bexar County Illegal Dumping Site, Saving Taxpayers a $100,000 Cleanup Bill

Dallas Keeps Funding the Garbage-Truck Cameras That Give Houses a Blight Score, and Sets an October Review

Texas Makes Solar Panel Recyclers Post Bonds Oct. 1 After Telling Businesses the Rule Costs Nothing