MIAMI – The city of Miami has made a consequential decision to withdraw an ordinance that would have allowed the city to stop offering recycling services for residents and businesses.
The fact that the city was even considering this drew a lot of ire from residents as well as several environmental groups and even the county mayor, who flexed her political muscle, warning the city of Miami there would be legal consequences if they passed this.
As Local 10 has previously reported, Miami-Dade County has been dealing with a waste management crisis with the county’s landfills soon running out of space, and with the county’s incinerator burning down two years ago.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava believes that this moment has now presented an opportunity to rethink and re-strategize how the county handles waste management going into the future.
“And by the way, the state holds the county government responsible for recycling across the county, so we cannot just allow somebody to opt out of recycling. It’s on us,” she said. “We produce double the national average per person. It’s a total of 5 million tons per year for Miami-Dade County residents. We’re responsible for less than half of the disposal, so we also have to work with our municipalities and bring them together.”
Local 10 anchor Louis Aguirre recently visited Austin, Texas to document how that city has been on the path to zero waste, diverting as much trash as possible away from the landfill by aggressively recycling and composting all food waste and yard waste without the need to burn any trash.
Miami-Dade is also exploring zero waste options.
The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners is expected to issue their final vote in July on if the county will build a new incinerator or explore more landfill and zero waste solutions.