Miami-Dade gets back on track to build waste incinerator. But where?
By Ashley Miznazi | Miami Herald
July 18, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT
Two years after Miami-Dade’s largest waste incinerator went up in flames itself, county commissioners agreed to put the county back on track to constructing a new one.
The biggest and most controversial question, however, remains up in the air: Where to put it?
Facing a looming landfill shortage already forcing the county into the expensive step of trucking some waste upstate, Miami-Dade commissioners on Wednesday agreed to build a new incinerator, one with a cleaner, more modern design that would also convert waste to energy.
“We have to stop playing games and politics and this is the most important situation this county is facing today,” Chairman Anthony Rodriguez said. “Where is the garbage going to go?”
But a series of votes also seemed to have taken most of the previous proposed sites off the table. Each one previously sparked criticism or threatened lawsuits from surrounding communities and rebuilding on the old incinerator site in Doral drew backlash from President Donald Trump’s son because of potential impact on the family golf resort. That criticism, as well as objections from environmentalists, had largely put the incinerator discussion on hold for nearly two years until Wednesday’s series of votes.
Under siting criteria, the new facility — which the county says would likely not go online for at least 10 years — would need to be built at least half a mile away from residential neighborhoods. Commissioners also voted to eliminate some previous potential locations in Medley, another known as the Opa-Locka West Airport site that the city of Miramar opposed, as well as the old Doral site.
READ MORE: Monroe County drops out of landmark climate compact, cuts emergency roles amid fears over FEMA cuts
After the meeting, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s office, in response to questions from the Herald, said its unclear what other sites might still qualify. The process of finding one is likely to spark a new round of debate and potential pushback from nearby communities.
One 65-acre tract proposed last summer by David Martin, the CEO of the development company Terra, was discussed as a viable contender by the commission but would require a land swap. A spokesperson from Terra told the Miami Herald the company is not prepared to move forward with a swap proposal at this time. (Full disclosure: Martin helps fund a climate reporting position for the Miami Herald.)
“We have no knowledge of why this proposal is being reintroduced on the commission agenda,” a spokesperson from Terra said in an email statement. “Our partnership considered this proposal as something in which the county was no longer interested.”
The county could still go back to the drawing board to find new site proposals that require less acreage or land swap county land for privately owned land. One idea floated by Commissioners Oliver Gilbert and Kionne McGhee was to put it in Alligator Alcatraz, a county-owned site seized by Governor Ron DeSantis to be a detention center.
“I just want to make sure that location is not lost in the discussion.” McGhee said. “Once it’s dealt with immigration in that particular location, maybe that’s a site we should have inside of the equation.”
Given its location surrounded by Everglades National Park, the Big Cypress National Preserve, protected state wetlands and Miccosukee tribal lands, that choice would almost certainly draw strong legal challenges.
It’s also unclear if the county will pursue one original plan that called for constructing what could be the nation’s largest waste-to-energy facility. This time, the plan also calls for a “heavy-emphasis” on composting, which potentially could reduce incinerator capacity demands.
The Mayor’s office commissioned a report that looked at 38 companies that showed interest in building an incinerator. Conducted by the consulting firm AtkinsRéalis, it looked at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each company and identified utility company Florida Power and Light and MasTec, the developers behind the new Inter Miami soccer stadium, as top contenders for operating the facility. Both businesses proposed they could also recycle and compost.
In a memo on the county’s waste problem, Levine Cava pushed for potentially expanding the capacity of the county’s existing landfills and considering developing a new one somewhere up state. On Wednesday, she told the Herald new technology incinerators were safe for the environment, and she only recommended a landfill because she didn’t think there would be a consensus on where to put an incinerator.
Levine Cava said her top priority was to reduce the waste stream — “reuse, reduce and recycle” — and divert organic waste out of the landfills. She said that was something the county could start on today. The county selected a consultant to create a comprehensive “Zero Waste plan” that will review everything from how the county collects and disposes waste to legislative action to achieve zero waste that should be ready in late 2026.
“When we talk to anyone wanting to do business with the county we will include how much waste will be diverted,” Levine Cava said.
Before the vote, environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Friends of Biscayne Bay and the CLEO Institute, all spoke against building an incinerator at all and urged an embrace of composting. The Sierra Club suggested landfills, with proper sorting, were better for the environment than an incinerator. And even with an incinerator, there would still be ash that would have to be disposed of in a landfill.
“While incinerators have worked to be cleaner than they were before there is no technology that stops the carbon emissions from burning garbage,” said Ken Russell, a lobbyist with the Sierra Club.
Commissioners pushed back that while composting was necessary, it would not be a silver bullet solution.
“I don’t think we can compost our way out of this,” Rene Garcia said. “And putting a landfill in someone else’s back yard is hypocritical.”
Composting large scale in the county is illegal because of code and permitting issues, but Commissioner Eileen Higgins said she was working to resolve that hurdle, perhaps by September. It’s possible that some of the sites once considered for an incinerator may wind up composting facilities instead.
“Composting is coming,” she said.
Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation and MSC Cruises in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.
This story was originally published by The Miami Herald and shared in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the Sun-Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.
The biggest and most controversial question, however, remains up in the air: Where to put it?
Facing a looming landfill shortage already forcing the county into the expensive step of trucking some waste upstate, Miami-Dade commissioners on Wednesday agreed to build a new incinerator, one with a cleaner, more modern design that would also convert waste to energy.
“We have to stop playing games and politics and this is the most important situation this county is facing today,” Chairman Anthony Rodriguez said. “Where is the garbage going to go?”
But a series of votes also seemed to have taken most of the previous proposed sites off the table. Each one previously sparked criticism or threatened lawsuits from surrounding communities and rebuilding on the old incinerator site in Doral drew backlash from President Donald Trump’s son because of potential impact on the family golf resort. That criticism, as well as objections from environmentalists, had largely put the incinerator discussion on hold for nearly two years until Wednesday’s series of votes.
Under siting criteria, the new facility — which the county says would likely not go online for at least 10 years — would need to be built at least half a mile away from residential neighborhoods. Commissioners also voted to eliminate some previous potential locations in Medley, another known as the Opa-Locka West Airport site that the city of Miramar opposed, as well as the old Doral site.
READ MORE: Monroe County drops out of landmark climate compact, cuts emergency roles amid fears over FEMA cuts
After the meeting, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s office, in response to questions from the Herald, said its unclear what other sites might still qualify. The process of finding one is likely to spark a new round of debate and potential pushback from nearby communities.
One 65-acre tract proposed last summer by David Martin, the CEO of the development company Terra, was discussed as a viable contender by the commission but would require a land swap. A spokesperson from Terra told the Miami Herald the company is not prepared to move forward with a swap proposal at this time. (Full disclosure: Martin helps fund a climate reporting position for the Miami Herald.)
“We have no knowledge of why this proposal is being reintroduced on the commission agenda,” a spokesperson from Terra said in an email statement. “Our partnership considered this proposal as something in which the county was no longer interested.”
The county could still go back to the drawing board to find new site proposals that require less acreage or land swap county land for privately owned land. One idea floated by Commissioners Oliver Gilbert and Kionne McGhee was to put it in Alligator Alcatraz, a county-owned site seized by Governor Ron DeSantis to be a detention center.
“I just want to make sure that location is not lost in the discussion.” McGhee said. “Once it’s dealt with immigration in that particular location, maybe that’s a site we should have inside of the equation.”
Given its location surrounded by Everglades National Park, the Big Cypress National Preserve, protected state wetlands and Miccosukee tribal lands, that choice would almost certainly draw strong legal challenges.
It’s also unclear if the county will pursue one original plan that called for constructing what could be the nation’s largest waste-to-energy facility. This time, the plan also calls for a “heavy-emphasis” on composting, which potentially could reduce incinerator capacity demands.
The Mayor’s office commissioned a report that looked at 38 companies that showed interest in building an incinerator. Conducted by the consulting firm AtkinsRéalis, it looked at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each company and identified utility company Florida Power and Light and MasTec, the developers behind the new Inter Miami soccer stadium, as top contenders for operating the facility. Both businesses proposed they could also recycle and compost.
In a memo on the county’s waste problem, Levine Cava pushed for potentially expanding the capacity of the county’s existing landfills and considering developing a new one somewhere up state. On Wednesday, she told the Herald new technology incinerators were safe for the environment, and she only recommended a landfill because she didn’t think there would be a consensus on where to put an incinerator.
Levine Cava said her top priority was to reduce the waste stream — “reuse, reduce and recycle” — and divert organic waste out of the landfills. She said that was something the county could start on today. The county selected a consultant to create a comprehensive “Zero Waste plan” that will review everything from how the county collects and disposes waste to legislative action to achieve zero waste that should be ready in late 2026.
“When we talk to anyone wanting to do business with the county we will include how much waste will be diverted,” Levine Cava said.
Before the vote, environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Friends of Biscayne Bay and the CLEO Institute, all spoke against building an incinerator at all and urged an embrace of composting. The Sierra Club suggested landfills, with proper sorting, were better for the environment than an incinerator. And even with an incinerator, there would still be ash that would have to be disposed of in a landfill.
“While incinerators have worked to be cleaner than they were before there is no technology that stops the carbon emissions from burning garbage,” said Ken Russell, a lobbyist with the Sierra Club.
Commissioners pushed back that while composting was necessary, it would not be a silver bullet solution.
“I don’t think we can compost our way out of this,” Rene Garcia said. “And putting a landfill in someone else’s back yard is hypocritical.”
Composting large scale in the county is illegal because of code and permitting issues, but Commissioner Eileen Higgins said she was working to resolve that hurdle, perhaps by September. It’s possible that some of the sites once considered for an incinerator may wind up composting facilities instead.
“Composting is coming,” she said.
Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation and MSC Cruises in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.
This story was originally published by The Miami Herald and shared in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the Sun-Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.