As contracts end, recycling expected to go on
While cities and counties across the country have taken drastic steps to handle rising recycling costs, “no cancellation of curbside recycling service has been considered” for Miami-Dade County, says Gayle Love, senior division director of the solid waste management department.
Recycling contracts for the county expire in early 2023. While proposals and plans remain under the cone of silence, Ms. Love has made it clear Miami-Dade will not follow the cutback and cancellation roads other jurisdictions nationwide have traveled.
A February report by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava revealed what’s going on elsewhere. “Across the county, jurisdictions have sought to redesign their programs in order to continue operations,” the mayor’s report said.
Four of 11 cities that curtailed recycling in 2019, for example, included:
■Akron, Ohio, stopped collecting glass for recycling in January.
■Jackson, MS, ended curbside recycling entirely in September.
■Tacoma, WA, ended plastic bag and shredded paper recycling, converted glass to drop-off only and began a $2.82 monthly surcharge in October.
■Twin Falls, Idaho, also in October reduced recyclables accepted to just cardboard and cans.
Closer to home, jurisdictions such as Deerfield Beach, Lake Worth and Sunrise have all altered their recycling programs to control costs.
With China no longer accepting recyclables, the New York times reported in 2019, recycling companies said they couldn’t depend on selling used plastic and paper at prices that covered their processing costs.
“The current contracts for curbside recycling and processing both expire on March 31, 2023,” Ms. Love said.
The county’s waste management department has worked with the Strategic Procurement Department to “develop RFPs (requests for proposal) for both contracts,” she added.
“The processing RFP “has been released,” she said, but remains under the cone of silence. The collection RFP is still being worked on by the Strategic Procurement Department, she said.
Errick Young
November 29, 2022 at 10:09 am
Couldn’t Miami-Dade contract with West Palm Beach to some agreement to produce energy from their recycling waste? WPB has power plants that can use otherwise unrecycled material to produce energy. Does MD have such a plant? I understand that they are cost prohibitive to build, but to use an existing facility like WPB, if they have capacity, would be a no-brainer, even if they have to pay a fee.