For more information, contact:
Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc.
(703) 573-5800 / www.gbbinc.com
Fairfax, VA (June 27, 2013) – Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc. (GBB) has been selected by the GeoTechnical Research Institute (GTRI), under the auspices of the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), to provide consulting assistance to the City of Houston, TX for its “One Bin for All” initiative, utilizing mechanical biological treatment with advanced resource recovery processing for residential municipal solid waste.
The “One Bin for All” waste and recycling concept is a revolutionary idea that involves residents discarding all materials in one bin, treating trash as valuable assets, and dramatically increasing recycling through the use of game changing technologies. The concept, which was brought forward by the City of Houston, is one of five winners of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge, a competition designed to inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas. Out of a pool of more than 300 applicant cities, Houston was selected as a Mayors Challenge winner based on four criteria: vision, ability to implement, potential for impact, and potential for replication. The city received a $1 million innovation grant from the Bloomberg Foundation and is supplementing it with U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency Community Block Grant funding to help implement the idea.
The ambitious project includes developing a cost neutral procurement process for a multi-year contract for the processing of the City’s residential waste and ensuring that a waste diversion goal of 55% is reached in year one and 75% after two years;
“GBB has brought to the City significant strategic procurement expertise, a mindset that matches the City’s innovative and forward-thinking vision for long-term sustainability, and a solid track record of successful programs and services implementations to help the City,” noted Deputy Director Don Pagel, the City’s Program Manager for “One Bin for All.”
“Mayor Annise Parker set forth a very ambitious project with the “One Bin for All” project for a total material resource recovery facility in the U.S., and we are honored to have been selected to work with the City of Houston,” said Harvey W. Gershman, GBB President.
The most populous city in Texas, Houston is also the fourth most populous city in the country with more than 2.1 million people. The City’s Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) has a $65.5 million annual budget and provides solid waste services to approximately 423,000 households, of which 376,820 are directly serviced by the SWMD with garbage, yard trimmings, and tree waste/junk waste collection. About 205,000 households are currently provided curbside recycling collection, and that program is also being expanded to additional households.
GTRI is a State of Texas entity based in The Woodlands, TX that has partnered with the City of Houston to contract with GBB to assist with the “One Bin for All” Project. GTRI is under the auspices of HARC. HARC employs a staff of about 45 researchers and administrators and is an independent research hub helping people thrive and nature flourish.
GBB is a national solid waste management consulting firm founded in 1980 that works on solid waste collection, processing, recycling and disposal issues and assists in planning, procuring, and implementing sound, cost-effective facilities and services at the local, state, and national levels for both the public and private sectors. For more information on the firm and its products and services, visit www.gbbinc.com, www.facebook.com/gbbinc, or call 703-573-5800.
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