The hard part is done. Now for the very hard part.
Broward officials spent years hammering out what they’ve called the Solid Waste Management and Recycling Draft Master Plan. It calls for rethinking the way the county’s 2 million residents separate and dispose of their trash, along with what happens to it once it’s hauled away in garbage and recycling trucks.
Now that the plan is complete, the team of public officials who developed it have to sell it to 31 local governments and the public they serve.
Residents and officials weighed in on the plan in a series of meeting and public hearings this week. Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan, co-chairman of the Solid Waste Authority of Broward County, appears to have a consensus behind him on the central issue driving the creation and future of a master plan.
“We are in a crisis,” he said. He says it often. He has to. The stakes are as high as it gets in Broward County, and they will only get higher, literally.
Earlier this year, the County Commission approved a plan to widen the base of the landfill at the Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park and increase the height by 10 feet, to 325 feet, to help accommodate the 5 million tons of trash produced by Broward residents and businesses each year.
It’s a stopgap measure. The master plan is the big picture, and while some of that is still developing, it’s already showing a future of big changes.
Broward once had two waste-to-energy facilities, built at public expense and handed over to a private company, Waste Management. A decade ago, the facility at Monarch Hill, which borders Coconut Creek, Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach, was mothballed. It was finally dismantled last year.
Meanwhile some of Broward’s largest cities either partially or totally ended curbside recycling.
Enter the master plan. It’s a long-term operation, not something most residents will even recognize at first.
The first priority, Ryan said, is to get all of Broward’s municipalities on board.
“We do not own any aspect of the trash infrastructure,” he said. “We are entirely exposed to market forces and pricing uncertainty.”
And that uncertainty will only get worse as Broward runs out of space and struggles to meet a state-mandated recycling rate of 75%. Broward’s current recycling rate is in the 30% range, Ryan said. The state’s deadline for the 75% goal isn’t even on the local calendar. “We won’t meet it,” Ryan said. “The best we can do is get on track.”
Each city currently negotiates trash removal contracts with Waste Management and Win Waste, with the companies able to charge as little as $40 a ton to put trash in a landfill and more than $100 a ton to process recycling, according to market reports.
Cities will be in a better position to negotiate with the waste removal companies if they join forces, Ryan said. Otherwise the market forces will raise the prices for everyone.
Ryan pointed to the Florida Panthers, City Furniture and the cruise industry as three businesses that have capitalized on their control of the trash they produce. All three managed to reduce hauling costs and even make money off the trash they recover from their customers.
Once the cities agree to the plan, Ryan said the next step will be a massive education campaign that not only touts the benefits of recycling but teaches residents the do’s and don’ts of waste reduction.
Most people don’t know, for example, that plastic grocery bags are not recyclable. They won’t break down in landfills either. “The issue isn’t how to dispose of them,” Ryan said. “The issue is that we shouldn’t be using them at all.”
State Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, said he opposes the expansion of the Monarch Hill landfill and wants its expansion subjected to the master plan’s approval and outcome.
“Portions of this site not up to today’s standards,” he said. “Tell me how pushing new trash on top of old trash makes any sort of sense here.”
But there’s little alternative at the moment, said Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller, a member of the Solid Waste Authority. “People want to dramatically increase recycling. They don’t want to pay more. They don’t want the landfill to get bigger,” Geller said.
At some point, changing waste disposal will become costly for residents, he acknowledged. It’s cheaper to put the trash in landfills.
There just aren’t anymore landfills. Changing, Geller said, will cost less than refusing to change.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.