If I were doing this paper my topic would be recycling in Corpus Christi. Feel free, however, to work on state problems, such as what to do about air quality in Houston, for example. Any paper needs to have a thesis, an argument. A thesis is the point of the paper and is used to move the argument forward. It is the one point you are going to prove, defend or illustrate.
Thesis are assertions worth discussing, or arguments having more than one solution.
For instance, if I were doing this paper, keeping in mind that my topic is recycling in Corpus, I might want to make an argument that if the program is not recovering its costs, then it should be cut. At this point I would look to see what is going on with the program. I would definitely visit the Caller Times web site, perhaps call the person responsible for the program and arrange an interview, either in person or on the phone. I might also want to see if there are any city documents available. Taken together, this would probably give me enough information to finish the local aspect of the paper.