Dallas is among the leaders in Texas cities in recycling.

While Houston thinks 2% is impressive (bless their hearts), we are at a whopping 12% after just 18 months of utilizing the city-wide recycling program. The amount of recycled material has doubled since the city began its curbside blue cart program a year and a half ago. Initially the city anticipated 50k requests for the 96 gallon blue bins but were gobsmacked to receive 90,000 requests.

If you don’t have your recycling bin yet, you can order one at this link.

In order to participate, residents now call the city for a cart. A white truck with the words “Too Good to Throw Away” scrawled on its side picks up the recycled goods every other week. In a few locations, this now occurs once a week. The items are then transported to a recycling facility in Garland, compressed and resold.

The city gets 67 percent of the proceeds.

Dallas may never take up San Francisco’s Styrofoam ban or use all hybrid cars, but we could become Texas’ surrogate green city.

Dallas has the largest alternative-fueled fleet of city vehicles in the state. And it passed an ordinance in April that mandates environmentally-conscious buildings.

Watch out Austin – we’re coming up fast. And since this is a “Texas thang” you know we are gunning for the top spot!