Brandy Deason, an environmentalist, tucked 12 devices in her recycling bin and watched them move throughout Houston.

While three were unaccounted for, nine of the trackers ended up 20 miles outside of the city at a waste management facility

Deason became suspicious when Houston launched a new program WHEN? that accepted certain plastics that are not typically considered recyclable, such as Styrofoam.

City officials admitted that more than 250 tons of plastic have been collected since the end of 2022, but none has yet to be actually recycled.

Houston rolled out the program in December 2022, with with ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, and Cyclyx International, allowing residents to discard all types of plastics in recycling bins.

Deason took advantage of the new effort, tucking AirTags inside plastic film wrap, shopping bags, shampoo bottles and other plastics that are usually prohibited by recycling facilities in the US. 

'We want to know what was happening with this stuff,' Deason told Inside Climate News. 'Is it really going to go to get recycled?' 

She watched the AirTags move using her smartphone, finding more than half landed at Wright Waste Management that is poised to as the 'new frontier in recycling' - but critics call the site 'a sham.'

Deason teamed up with CBS News for her investigation and visited Wright Waste Management, which is listed as a cardboard recycler that applied in 2022 to operate as a plastic recycler for Houston's program.

CBS sent a drone over the site capturing stacks of plastics more than 10 feet high.

Mark Wilfalk, Houston's top solid waste official, said the city is aware of the issue, but noted that they plan to 'stockpile it for now' and 'see what happens.'

Cyclyx promised Houston officials that it would open a sorting facility to store and treat plastics that can be turned into recyclable pellets, but construction at Wright Waste Management has yet to start.