Dallas would collect about $1 million a year less from the company that sorts its curbside recycling under a contract change headed to the City Council, according to a staff memo released ahead of a committee briefing Monday.
The council's Parks, Trails and the Environment Committee is set to hear the proposal Monday, Nov. 2, and the full council is scheduled to consider it Nov. 10. It would be the third amendment to the city's deal with FCC Environmental Services Texas and its Spanish parent, Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, which built and runs the materials recovery facility at McCommas Bluff Landfill.
Why the operator wants a change
FCC Texas asked for financial relief, citing weak markets for recycled materials and rising operating costs, according to the memo from Assistant City Manager Alina Ciocan. The company reports its processing costs climbed about 33% between 2020 and 2025 and that the plant lost money per ton in seven of the last nine years.
City staff reviewed the request with an outside consultant who checked the company's documentation, and they recommend approval.
What the city gives up
Under the current agreement, Dallas pays nothing to have its recyclables processed. In return, it receives a share of revenue, host fees when the plant handles recyclables from other customers, and money for recycling education. That brings in about $1.3 million a year now, most of it from the host fees; the revenue-sharing piece has produced little lately, the memo says.
The amendment would lower the host fees and change the revenue sharing and education payments for an initial three years, with up to two one-year extensions if both sides agree. Staff estimate the city's sanitation department would lose about $1 million a year over those three to five years.
The memo says that loss is already built into the sanitation budget adopted for 2026-27 and the plan for 2027-28, and that residential sanitation charges would not rise because of it in those years.
