Miami-Dade still grappling with MSW options

A mid-February meeting of Miami-Dade County commissioners will include a vote to help determine the future disposal method for the south Florida city and county’s municipal solid waste (MSW).

Instead, according to regional media reports, commissioners opted to seek additional options and ideas while postponing the vote until July.

How to handle MSW in Miami and Dade County has been problematic since early 2023, when a waste-to-energy (WTE) facility in Doral, Florida, experienced a fire that rendered it inoperable. The WTE facility had been operated by Morristown, New Jersey-based ReWorld (then known as Covanta). When operational, it could accept up to 1 million tons of MSW annually.

In the subsequent two years since the fire, officials in the region have prepared a list of proposed sites for a replacement WTE plant.

In the meantime, the unrecycled portions of Miami and Dade County’s MSW are being trucked beyond the county’s borders. According to WTVJ-TV, the county recently signed a 10-year contract to continue that practice, and Miami Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has suggested that practice can continue.

Officials and advocacy groups quoted by the TV station and other media outlets indicate not in my backyard (NIMBY) opposition will continue to make settling on a new WTE location difficult.

A Feb. 20 Miami Herald report indicates that NIMBY opposition may go all the way to President Donald Trump.

At the mid-February commissioners meeting, a participant reportedly said rebuilding the WTE plant in Doral is unlikely to receive state or federal funding or approval if the president signals he does not want the facility near Doral, where he owns the Trump National Doral Miami golf course and club.

Nonetheless, WTVJ says rebuilding a replacement WTE facility remains on the table, whether in Doral or elsewhere.

The same report indicates that commissioners also are looking into purchasing land outside Miami-Dade to build their own landfill or to collaborate with adjacent Broward County in finding a regional solution.