Miami-Dade Innovation Authority launches fifth Public Innovation Challenge

Miami-Dade Innovation Authority (MDIA) has launched its fifth Public Innovation Challenge, a pioneering initiative part of Miami-Dade County’s overall waste diversion efforts.

In collaboration with the Miami-Dade County Department of Solid Waste Management (DSWM), this challenge invites local and global early-to-growth stage companies to submit innovative solutions to enhance and strengthen strategies to divert and reduce waste while educating and engaging residents.

According to MDIA, piloting the technologies proposed in the Public Innovation Challenge will inform and complement the development of the county’s Zero Waste Master Plan.

The challenge will run until April 21. MDIA, in partnership with DSWM, will select at least three early-to-growth stage technology startups, providing each with $100,000 in funding to test and validate their solutions with DSWM.

MDIA says the challenge seeks solutions that harness technology to improve waste diversion efforts, like recycling and organic waste reuse, while also educating and encouraging the public to participate in these efforts. The solutions should be ready to be implemented in a pilot setting and should be scalable, the authority says. 

“Reducing landfill waste and improving waste diversion is crucial in ensuring the continued health and wellbeing of Miami residents and fragile ecosystems– especially as our population continues to grow,” President and CEO of MDIA Leigh-Ann Buchanan says. “This challenge not only provides an opportunity for startups with cutting edge solutions to make a real impact on waste diversion in Miami-Dade County but also demonstrates our region’s leadership within the global resilience community as we invest in technologies that help improve environmental outcomes and make recycling and reuse more accessible for residents.”

Miami-Dade currently produces more than five million tons of waste annually, and, according to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), only 37 percent of the county’s waste is actually recycled with a nearly 40 percent contamination rate. As the county’s population continues to grow, waste diversion remains a critical strategy in mitigating environmental impact, MDIA says. By reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, communities can conserve natural resources, decrease greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing matter, prevent soil and water contamination and lessen the need for new resource extraction to produce new products or create new landfills. Waste diversion also provides financial benefits by extending the life of county landfills. Waste diversion also helps reduce the environmental impact of landfill expansion by conserving land, minimizing pollution and ensuring that resources are used more sustainably, allowing the county to better manage waste as it grows.

The challenge seeks solutions focused on several key areas of waste diversion:

• Platforms that connect residents to recycling resources such as solutions that offer educational tools about what materials are recyclable, how residents can reduce waste stream contamination and how residents might effectively reuse certain materials. 
• Technologies that inform residents how to sort their waste, including applications that help residents identify recyclable materials and/or incentivize residents to effectively manage their household waste streams. 
• Analytics platforms that provide insight into where waste is going and help DSWM optimize on-site waste diversion operations. 
• Waste diversion management solutions, such as solutions that divert organic waste from county landfills.

“This is a game-changing moment for Miami-Dade,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava says. “As our community continues to grow, we must use all the tools in our box to reimagine how we manage our waste now and in the future. This challenge presents a unique opportunity to leverage the know-how of the private sector to engage our residents and use innovative, cutting-edge solutions to build a smarter, more resilient waste management system that will serve our community for generations to come.”

DSWM’s new recycling contracts will take effect April 1 and will include trucks fitted with GPS systems and camera to help better identify contamination.

“As Miami-Dade continues to grow, effective waste diversion is essential to building a more sustainable community,” DSWM Director Aneisha Daniel says. “Through this challenge, we aim to discover innovative solutions that will transform waste into opportunities for a greener future. This collaboration with the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority on the Public Innovation Challenge allows us to leverage cutting-edge technology to reduce waste going to landfills while also engaging and educating residents on recycling and organic waste reuse. We look forward to working with innovative startups to create impactful solutions for a more sustainable future.”

MDIA has enlisted subject matter experts from the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), to ensure the challenge benefits from diverse expertise, MDIA says.

“Entrepreneurship, innovation and technology are essential for facing current and emerging issues,” SWANA CEO Amy Lestition Burke says. “This Public Innovation Challenge will enable startup companies to share their innovative solutions for the benefit of Miami-Dade County. The solutions that come out of this project will support local goals and may also be scalable for national waste and resource management. We look forward to seeing the creative approaches that will come from this work.” 

Since 2023, MDIA has launched four public challenges in collaboration with Miami-Dade County, through which it has deployed $1 million in funding and attracted more than 350 startups from 40 different countries, amassing a company pipeline network which collectively represents $6.5 billion in revenue and $1 billion in funding raised, the authority says. Recognized by the International Economic Development Council, Nasdaq and Harvard Business School, MDIA says it aims to create a replicable model for municipalities to fast-track the procurement of technology that enables local governments to more effectively and efficiently improve quality of life in cities.