Miami-Dade still grappling with MSW options

A mid-February meeting of Miami-Dade County commissioners had been scheduled to 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 has rendered it inoperable.

The WTE facility had been operated by New Jersey-based ReWorld (then known as Covanta). When it was operating, it could accept up to 1 million tons of MSW annually.

In the subsequent two years since the fire, elected 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 Miami-based 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.

Elected 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 article indicates that NIMBY opposition may go all the way to the top in the form of President Donald J. Trump.

At the mid-February commissioners meeting, one of the participants 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 the rebuilding of a replacement WTE facility remains “on the table,” whether in Doral or elsewhere.

The same writeup indicates that option has been joined by commissioners also “looking into purchasing land outside of Miami Dade to build their own landfill or to collaborate with [adjacent] Broward County in finding a regional solution.”