talking trash

City of Houston sorts trash and curbside recycling questions with new app

The new app answers all those recycling and trash schedule questions.

Photo courtesy of Richwood Place

Ah, the age-old Houston recycling questions: Is recycling today? Next week? Is glass accepted? Recycle the birthday card from the ex or burn it?

The City of Houston is here to help with those questions (er, perhaps not the last one) with a new app designed to help locals. HTX Collects is a new mobile app aimed at helping residents keep track of weekly services, updates, and collection delays.

HTX Collects will include collection reminders for garbage, recycling, yard waste and tree/junk waste specific to residents’ service addresses. The app will also send a reminder to residents of their collection days, a press release notes. (Yes!)

Other features include:

Collection Calendar: Trash, Recycling, Yard Waste, Junk/Tree Waste services. Users can set reminders and receive alerts via email, push notifications, and phone call.
Waste Wizard: A searchable solid waste directory, plus curbside services and drop-off location information.
Waste Sorting Game: An interactive educational tool to engage, challenge and change recycling behavior.

Residents can find and download the mobile app for Apple and Android devices via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store by searching for the keywords Houston Trash and Recycling.

Those who would prefer not to litter their home screen can visit the website HoustonRecycles.org and search their home address in the My Schedule tool. They can also:

Sign up to receive waste collection reminders by email or phone call.
Download their collection schedule into their iCal, Google calendar, or Microsoft Outlook calendar. Print their personalized collection schedule.
Search the Waste Wizard on HoustonRecycles.org to learn how to recycle or dispose of materials properly.

By the numbers, Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department collects curbside service for over 395,000 residential homes within the city limits, per a release. (No word on how many of those collected items are ex’s birthday cards.)

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Innovation Station

Texas maintains its status as one of 15 most innovative states in the U.S.

Houston skyline

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During a SXSW reception March 12 at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott hailed Texas as the No. 1 state for innovation. Personal finance website WalletHub sees it a little differently though.

In a new study from WalletHub, the Most & Least Innovative States (2026), Texas is assigned the No. 13 ranking for innovation among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

D.C. comes out on top, followed by Massachusetts, California, Colorado, and Washington. Mississippi appears at the bottom of the list.

Texas earns a total innovation score of 49.56, compared with 69.13 for top-ranked D.C. In two broad categories, Texas ranks 12th for human capital and 13th for innovation environment.

To identify the top places for innovation, WalletHub evaluated the 50 states and D.C. by reviewing 25 key indicators of innovation friendliness. The indicators include:

Share of STEM professionals
Forecast for Share of STEM professionals
Forecast for STEM jobs
Eighth-grade math and science performance
Concentration of tech companies
R&D spending per capita
Share of science and engineering graduates age 25 and over
Average internet speed
Venture capital funding per capita

“The most innovative states are especially attractive to people who have majored in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, as they offer abundant career opportunities and investment dollars, both for jobs at existing companies and for startups,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report.

“These states also instill young students with the skills they need to succeed in the current workforce, skills which are useful whether or not they pursue a STEM career,” he added.

Texas held steady in the 2026 report, receiving the same ranking as in 2025 (at No. 13), but improving its overall score slightly, up from 48.96. In 2024, Texas was ranked No. 14 in the U.S., marking its first appearance within the top 15 most innovative states. In recent years, Texas has consistently moved up the ladder among most innovative states.

Texas zeroes in on semiconductor industry
On the innovation front, Abbott and other state leaders have focused intently on growing the state’s semiconductor industry, which generates roughly $30 to $60 billion in economic activity per year. Texas ranks among the top states for semiconductor manufacturing, with major operations in North Texas and Central Texas.

To bolster the industry, Abbott signed the Texas CHIPS Act into law in 2023. The law established the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, which issues grants for semiconductor research, design and manufacturing, and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium, which advises the governor and state legislators on matters related to the semiconductor sector.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

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