waste

Miami-Dade County announced in a contest that it will pay at least three early-to growth-stage startup businesses $100,000 to jump-start projects that encourage better recycling, more organic waste disposal and community education on how to properly sort trash.

The vote over expansion of the site commonly known as Mount Trashmore had been delayed at various commission meetings. In the face of objections from some in the surrounding communities, commissioners cited the need to serve the county’s waste disposal needs as a whole. Dissenting commissioners said they wanted to wait until the Solid Waste Authority’s master plan was finished.

A new Miami-Dade County report outlines what would need to happen to make large-scale composting happen in South Florida.

The deferral is meant to give the County’s Solid Waste Authority time to determine if the Monarch Hill site could have any future use for anything other than a landfill.

The proposals would allow for the landfill, known locally as Mount Trashmore, to increase its height by 100 feet and its horizontal footprint by almost 25 acres. The urgency of the vote has been exacerbated by more than a decade of failed governmental cooperation, corporate wars and even global economics.

In Florida, six of the nine existing incinerators are where the percentages of people of color are higher than the statewide average of 46%, according to the EPA. As Miami-Dade is experiencing, there is no perfect location to build a new one.

Miami-Dade Commissioners agreed to eliminate single-use plastics and styrofoam at county-owned venues — the latest chapter in a longstanding battle between the state and local governments over attempts to ban single-use plastics.

Miami-Dade County Commissioners defer vote following opposition of mayor's Opa-locka West selection for a new trash incinerator.

Miami-Dade commissioners are expected to vote next week on selecting the location for the new incinerator after the old one in Doral burned down last year, forcing the county to ship the garbage some 100 miles north.

AtkinsRéalis, Miami-Dade County's consulting firm, unveiled preliminary designs for a facility that would handle 50% more waste than the one burned beyond repair in February 2023 in Doral.

A new consultant’s report that analyzed three potential sites — at the original Doral location, at the defunct Opa-locka West Airport and in an industrial tract in Medley — will only add fuel to the fire of the ongoing debate.

New York is the latest, and largest, state to consider charging product-makers to dispose of their packaging. But lawmakers are clashing over how much to involve industry in creating a new system.