Broward Solid Waste Authority’s draft master plan: We’ll need to dump trash at landfill for decades

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org

The Broward Solid Waste Authority’s long-awaited master plan for the future of garbage disposal and recycling in the county has finally dropped, in draft form.

“The Draft Master Plan outlines a strategic path forward to significantly decrease waste generation, increase diversion, reduce landfill dependence, and transition to a unified, more circular and resilient solid waste management system,” says an accompanying statement released by the Solid Waste Authority (SWA).

Executive Director Todd Storti described the 67-page draft plan as a “data-driven vision for the next 40 years’’ focused “around a singular but transformative goal: Zero Waste to Landfill.” It will require “a cultural shift toward minimizing waste at the source, maximizing beneficial reuse and recycling, and fundamentally rethinking how materials move through our economy –- from product design to end-of-life,” he wrote.

The draft plan envisions regional collaboration among the county and its municipalities that will allow the authority “to streamline and enhance waste management and recycling services.” The county and 28 of its 31 municipalities have signed on to an inter-local agreement (ILA) that created the SWA. Those not in the SWA are Pompano Beach, Pembroke Pines and Hallandale Beach

“We must build a bridge from the current solid waste management system of each municipality and the County acting mostly independently of one another with disparate services, messaging, and performance to a harmonized solid waste management structure of the future,” the draft plan says.

The authority’s overarching goal is for Broward to recycle 75 percent of its solid waste by 2045. Today, the draft plan says, only 39 percent is recycled.

‘ZERO WASTE TO LANDFILL’?

The notion of “Zero Waste to Landfill” seems like a tall order, particularly when you consider the stress to the system that will occur as Broward’s population jumps from about 2 million today to an anticipated 2.19 million by 2040 and more than 2.4 million by 2065.

The SWA acknowledges the problem.

“Achieving the goal of 75% diversion will be challenging and will require a long-term commitment and funding to continuously educate the public about consumption practices, waste generation, consequences of today’s continued disposal practices, trade-offs in taxes and fees, and lifestyle choices to change the well-established habits of a culture of throwaway conveniences,” the draft plan says.

The ambitious goal won’t be made any more politically achievable by the draft plans’ highly controversial assertion that no matter which of the five forward-looking scenarios it outlined, Broward must continue to dump much of its refuse in landfills, most likely Waste Management’s Monarch Hill in North Broward along Florida’s Turnpike.

“Additional landfill capacity will be necessary over the planning horizon to manage residual materials, provide added resilience from future debris generating disaster events, and ensure operational stability,” the draft plan says. “It is imperative for the Authority to actively procure additional capacity within or outside the County as a critical part of its long-term resiliency strategy.”

The draft plan does not say how much it will cost to meet its recycling and other goals, though those costs are sure to run into the tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of dollars. It does say, however, that it “contemplates significant investments” by reducing costs for its ILA members through “economies of scale and more efficient operations.”

Also noted in the draft plan: the authority’s power “to impose special assessments [on tax bills] to finance its operations and capital improvements.”

“By unifying waste and recycling management services, the ILA enables the Authority to enhance its negotiating power, securing better contracts and terms, ultimately benefiting the municipalities economically through a more efficient, cost effective, and sustainable waste management,” the draft plan says.

‘I’M NOT A FAN OF IT AT ALL’

The SWA hired two private companies, Arcadis and SCS Engineers, to help figure out, among other things, how Broward can achieve its goal of recycling 75 percent of all its solid waste in 20 years. The draft master plan is the key result to date.

But not everyone is overjoyed at the authority’s approach.

For one: Coconut Creek Commissioner Joshua Rydell, who is on the SWA’s 13-member executive committee.

“I’m not a fan of it at all. It’s not innovative. It’s not progressive. It is more of the same,” he told Florida Bulldog on Friday. “They make recommendations that we don’t need any more waste-to-energy [plants]. They talk about the need for another landfill but they don’t give reasons. And, essentially, if I’m Broward County, with that solid waste report I could grow the [Monarch Hill] landfill another 700 feet based on the needs assessment in that.”

In February, Rydell and his city were on the losing end of a contentious struggle with Waste Management over the height of the towering, 500-acre Monarch Hill.  The county commission voted 5-3 then to approve Waste Management’s request to allow it to add another 10 stories to the dump’s nearly 225-foot height.

That controversial decision also requires that only construction and demolition debris can be deposited above the 225-foot mark, which will prevent the continued dumping there of smelly municipal solid waste.

Others, including Sunrise Mayor and SWA Executive Committee chair Mike Ryan, did not respond to Florida Bulldog requests for comment.

‘SCENARIO A’

As explained in the draft master plan, the authority’s executive committee considered five scenarios for how to proceed. “Consensus was achieved that Scenario A offers the most practical, cost-effective, and quickest path forward to building the Authority’s new solid waste system while still providing the necessary flexibility for the Authority to adapt and pursue more progressive waste diversion investments over time as the system matures and evolves.”

 “Scenario A includes the first critical steps needed for the Authority to be successful – restoring and expanding single-stream recycling access, improving waste diversion opportunities through the harmonization of services and separation of material streams, targeting single-stream recycling and yard waste programs that are easiest to implement while yielding the largest gains in recycling, investing in supporting infrastructure and complimentary public education, and ensuring long-term disposal security,” the draft plan says.

That scenario nevertheless envisions diverting just 62 percent of the solid waste stream to recycling or other waste processing technologies by 2045 and leaving 2.7 million tons to send to a landfill. Three of the four other scenarios in the draft plan would divert less tonnage to the landfill.

The public is being invited to comment on the plan online here.

The SWA also announced it will hold a pair of public meetings to discuss the draft master plan: Monday, June 16 at Tree Tops Park (3900 SW 100th Ave. in Davie) and Tuesday, June 17 at the Downtown Event Center (416 NE 1st St. in Fort Lauderdale). Both meetings are from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.