Recycling
In April 2003, Fort Worth made significant changes to its garbage collection program in order to encourage recycling. Garbage pick up fees now vary according to the size of household garbage carts, providing a financial incentive to recycle. Recycling carts are now much larger and accept a wide variety of plastic, paper, and metal materials for recycling. The new program has allowed the City to divert a significant amount of material from landfills and back into productive reuse. Prior to the start of the new program, the residential recycle diversion rate was 6 percent of the waste stream. During fiscal year 2005-2006, 21.5 percent of residential solid waste collected curbside was recycled in Fort Worth—a 350 percent increase over the old program. This includes both material collected as single-stream recyclables and yard trimmings. This diversion rate has been increasing year after year since the start of the new program as the residents of Fort Worth better understand the benefits of recycling.

Stormwater
Another regional effort is a study of ways to more effectively manage stormwater impacts. In November 2002, 55 local governments kicked off a regional effort to address stormwater issues through the integrated Storm Water Management, or iSWM, program. The iSWM initiative, coordinated by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, will help the region achieve environmental goals, foster partnerships with state and federal agencies, and provide guidelines for comprehensive stormwater management. The City of Fort Worth adopted the iSWM Storm Water Management Design Manual for Site Development on May 1, 2006.