MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A consequential vote is happening next week that will impact all of South Florida, and not just the general election.
The Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners will convene on Wednesday to make a decision on where to build a controversial new waste-to-energy trash incinerator that nobody wants in their backyard, with many asking whether it has to be built at all.
“It’s just crazy,” says Sierra Club Miami Conservation Chair Steven Leidner. “Here we are digging our grave, dumping massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.”
The trash talk has been heating up since the old Covanta Plant in Doral burned down in February of 2023.
Four sites are on the table, including the original location in Doral, one in Medley off NW 106th Street and 98th Court, another on Okeechobee Road and NW 178th Street, and the now-closed Opa Locka Airport West site off Krome Avenue and Okeechobee Road. The county administration has favored the last site despite its proximity to the Everglades and neighboring Broward County.
Environmentalists say that they’re all bad choices.
“Our position is not a NIMBY [not in my backyard] position, it’s a nope position – not on planet Earth,” explained Leidner.
With just days before the final vote, Leidner organized a meeting at the Coral Gables congregational church so that residents and young students could voice their concerns to the county’s Chief of Resilience for the Solid Waste Department.
“We can’t pollute the world, because if not, we won’t have a world to live in,” stressed 8th grade Carver Middle school student Emma Maufroy. “And the incinerator is just not the best option right now.”
Opponents and conservationists are very worried about the environmental impact that this new plant would have, especially with the airport West Site outside of Miami-Dade County’s Urban Development Boundary.
“We have a self-imposed boundary where we’re not supposed to build beyond,” underscored Sierra Club Lobbyist and Consultant Ken Russell. “And we’re going to put the country’s largest garbage incinerator there, literally a stone’s throw from the Everglades, our most sensitive environmental treasure.”
If the county proceeds, it will build the largest waste-to-energy plant in the country, capable of turning 4,000 tons of trash a day into electricity and alternative fuels. But at what cost to the planet?
“It’s the most polluting and expensive way to manage waste or to make energy,” said Founder and Executive Director of the watchdog group the Energy Justice Network Mike Ewall when speaking on incineration. “When you burn this stuff, you get carbon dioxide, which is big global warming pollutant, you get huge amounts of it.”
But Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava pushed back on those claims when she spoke with the Don’t Trash Our Treasure team.
“We believe that a lot of what has been shared by concerned citizens is antiquated research based on an old model, not the new science,” she explained.
Mayor Levine Cava says that she and her team have spent the past year and a half researching new technology, traveling the world to visit new waste-to-energy plants like the one in Japan and in parts of Europe.
They’ve pointed to one site in Copenhagen as a shining example, where engineers claim to have greatly reduced toxic fumes and bad odors that spew into the atmosphere, even mitigating noxious gases.
“That has been fully studied, and especially with the new standards, is clearly not at the level of that of concern,” she underscored.
Environmentalists say it’s greenwashing.
“Yes, they may have cleaned the smoke a little bit, they may have made it smell better, but it is currently proven under the county’s own study that there is no mitigation for carbon and greenhouse gas at this level,” Russell said.
However, the Mayor points to research showing that landfills and the amount of methane they emit are actually much more harmful.
“It’s the trucking that uses carbon for the transit, [and] transportation, and there’s the fact that the landfill itself is producing methane and other pollution,” the Mayor explained.
Miami-Dade County is estimated to produce more than five million tons of waste a year, which is double the national average, due in part to all of the tourists who visit.
The county’s landfills are full and since the old incinerator burned down, much of the county’s waste is now transported up to Central Florida to a landfill in Saint Cloud. The mayor believes that it’s not a sustainable solution and that the new incinerator, though not a perfect solution, is the best path forward.
“We can’t just wish the waste away,” Levine Cava said. “We have to deal with it responsibly, and I am satisfied with the expert advice that I’ve received that this is a responsible way.”
Opponents argue that there are greener alternatives to incineration, establishing a zero waste campus that encourages composting, more efficient recycling, and repurposing of construction materials that make up the majority of trash that winds up in our landfills.
“Composting alone will reduce 50% to 70% of our waste stream,” said Leidner.
For the youth, it’s their future on the line.
“They have the final decision in all of this, and they should be listening to the future and what is going to be the future Miami and the future community leaders,” said ISPA High School Senior Rita Araoz.
The Mayor says she’s bringing in a zero-waste consultant to help the county implement a range of options to reduce and better manage our waste. One that includes expanding composting programs, improving recycling- and more importantly launching a comprehensive education campaign, reminding residents that reducing how much waste the produces is everyone’s responsibility.
Local 10 will be there for the vote on Nov. 6.
To learn more about the proposal from Miami-Dade County, you can visit the project’s website.