Public Waste Access Report 2026
A structured snapshot of public waste facility access rules (fees, residency, limits, accepted materials) based on official sources.
Last updated: 2026-03-01
Data-driven, sourced from official pages when available.
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Key Findings
- 832 facilities across 280 Texas cities in current coverage.
- 8% list a phone number.
- 8% list hours.
- 8% include fee details.
- 16% of Texas facilities include an official source or website link.
- 4% mention residency/proof requirements.
- 0% mention visit limits or monthly caps.
- 1% explicitly mention tire acceptance.
- 1% mention construction/demolition/debris policy.
- 6% mention hazardous materials policy.
Metric snapshot (Texas vs Houston)
| Metric | Texas | Houston |
|---|---|---|
total_facilities |
832 | 132 |
total_cities |
280 | 1 |
pct_with_phone |
8% | 25% |
pct_with_hours |
8% | 25% |
pct_with_fees |
8% | 25% |
pct_with_official_source_link |
16% | 39% |
pct_with_any_url |
28% | 53% |
pct_mentions_residency_requirement |
4% | 13% |
pct_mentions_visit_limits |
0% | 2% |
pct_accepts_tires |
1% | 9% |
pct_mentions_CandD |
1% | 2% |
pct_mentions_hazardous_policy |
6% | 18% |
Texas Focus + Houston Case Study
Texas has broad city-level coverage, but rule depth is uneven and concentrated in heavily verified metro pages. Houston currently has the deepest structured policy fields, making it a strong case study for decision-ready guidance.
- 132 Houston facilities represented in this dataset snapshot.
- 25% include phone, 25% include hours, and 25% include fee details.
- 13% mention residency/proof requirements and 2% mention visit limits.
- 9% mention tire handling and 18% mention hazardous material policy.
- Parsed Houston monthly visit limits: min 4, max 4, typical 4 (4 parseable mentions).
Definitions
- Neighborhood Depository: A local public drop-off location for household trash, bulk waste, and selected recyclables, often with resident-only requirements.
- Transfer station: An intermediate facility where waste is consolidated before transport to landfill or processing.
- Landfill: A permitted final disposal site for municipal solid waste and other approved material streams.
- C&D waste: Construction and demolition waste, such as wood, drywall, roofing, concrete, and mixed debris.
- Bulk waste: Oversized household items that do not fit standard curbside service, such as furniture and large fixtures.
- Household hazardous waste (HHW): Home-use products like paint, chemicals, batteries, and solvents requiring special handling.
Methodology
This report aggregates structured facility records from JunkScout's Texas coverage using normalized fields from city-level datasets, manual verification overlays, and facility-level records. Source URLs are preserved where available, and metrics are computed on the current static build snapshot.
Update cadence is build-driven: whenever facility data is regenerated, this report can be rebuilt with the same script.
Notes & Limitations
- Facility rules can change without notice; always verify before driving.
- Some records are location-complete but policy-light (missing fees/hours/rules fields).
- Keyword heuristics are used for residency, visit limits, C&D, and hazardous policy signals.
- Percentages are rounded to whole numbers for stability.