--- title: "Woman Disgusted When She Uses Tracker to See Where Her Plastic Recycling Really Ends Up" description: "An environmentalist decided to put a GPS tracker in with her recycle to see where it ended up — and the results were absolutely shocking." date: "2024-08-30" modified: "2024-08-30" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/gps-tracker-plastic-recycling" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "GPS" - "plastic" - "recycling" - "the digest" --- # Woman Disgusted When She Uses Tracker to See Where Her Plastic Recycling Really Ends Up ![An environmentalist decided to put a GPS tracker in with her recycle to see where it ended up — and the results were absolutely shocking.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Handy Device An environmentalist put a GPS tracker in with her recycling to see where it ended up — and the results were not confidence-inspiring. As [*Inside Climate News* reports]() in an investigative collaboration with *CBS*, Houston activist and avid recycler Brandy Deason tossed an [Apple Tag]() in with her bagged plastic waste to take to one of the city's new recycling drop-off sites to see what really happens to recyclables. Deason dropped her secretly-tagged plastic bag off with the Houston Recycling Collaboration, a public-private partnership that [launched with the help of Exxon]() nearly two years ago to address the city's low recycling rates. Though the program was partially billed as being capable of melting any plastic down for reuse chemically, *ICN* and *CBS* found with the help of Deason that no such process has occurred in the 20 months since the project first began. In fact, the sorting plant that's supposed to enact the so-called "[advanced recycling]()" process still hasn't opened — and won't do so until the middle of next year. "We want to know what was happening with this stuff," Deason, a member of the Houston Air Alliance, told the website. "Is it really going to go to get recycled?" ## Plastic Scenery As the activist, her organization, and the news outlets soon found, the tagged bags instead ended up at Wright Waste Management, a remote facility 20 miles outside of the city's downtown. Though its reporters were not allowed a look inside, drone footage from above the plant shows that it's home to a giant open-air pile of trash. Despite not having opened the promised sorting facility, the Houston Recycling Collaboration also expanded its drop-off locations from one to eight, which seems per this new investigation to be steering exponentially more plastics to the glorified landfill at the Wright plant. Beyond the disingenuousness of expanding a recycling program that isn't recycling as advertised, experts who spoke to *ICN* note said that storing plastic waste in the Texas head can pose a fire hazard. In fact, as a [documents request filed by the news outlets revealed](), the facility failed fire marshal inspections three times between July 2023 and April 2024. In those inspections, fire officials found that the plant was missing permits related to the storage of hazardous and combustible materials. As part of her activism, Deason limits her own plastic use — and she was appalled to learn where her unavoidable plastic waste ended up. "Should that catch fire, the emissions coming off of that could be really poisonous to the people that live around here," she told *ICN*, "not to mention a dangerous, large fire like that could spread into a neighborhood." **More on plastic nightmares:** [*Scientists Found Microplastics in Every Human Semen Sample They Examined*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()