Miami-Dade recycling, once a profit center, swings to big loss

Soaring inflation coupled with China’s policy reverse are blamed for a 28% jump in Miami-Dade recycling collection costs while turning recycled materials from a county profit center into a $17 million loss for the next two years.

The county, which for three years had sought new recycling contracts, faced a time crunch last week as three 15-year deals neared an end. It approved no-bid renewals with current vendors while it hunts for better deals and plans a no-waste future.

Commissioners without comment voted to spend $22 million yearly on recycling for the next two years. In the past 15 years the county paid an average of under $11 million a year before reaping an average of $700,000 yearly for recycled materials themselves, sold mostly to China.

“There are several factors contributing to the change in pricing,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote before the votes. “Significant increases in the costs of fuel, labor, and trucks have led to industry-wide increases in collection prices.”

“Global market forces shifting the economics are also at play,” she said. “Historically, the United States has exported a large portion of its recyclables to China; however, as of spring 2019, the China National Sword policy banning waste imports has caused recycling revenues to drop below the level needed to recover processing costs at many facilities.”

Miami-Dade under the new contract will pay $143.99 per ton to the Materials Recovery Facility in Pembroke Pines and revisit the costs and price annually. Three years ago, the cost was about $50, she wrote.

In the face of these changes, the mayor in February 2022 reported that communities across the nation had been trying to redesign recycling “in order to continue operations.” Some stopped collecting specific recyclables or ended all curbside collections.

Given the changed market for recycled goods and higher costs, Mayor Levine Cava told commissioners last week, her administration “is working on a long-term plan that will put the county on a path to achieve zero waste by 2050.” No waste could mean no county recycling.

The mayor said her zero waste policy “will emphasize waste reduction, composting and other waste management and diversion strategies that will reduce collection and processing costs long run.”
Meanwhile, the county for two years is to pay $17 million to Coastal Waste & Recycling of Florida of Pompano Beach and $10 million to Waste Management Inc. of Florida based in Houston for collection and $17 million to Waste Connections of Florida based in The Woodland, TX, for handling recycled materials that once turned a county profit.

These services, the mayor wrote, are “a bridge needed to ensure the continuity of critical waste management services… while the replacement solicitations are evaluated, negotiated, awarded and transitioned.”

The search for replacements with consultant Kessler Consulting of Tampa began three years ago. A request for proposals for processing recyclables was advertised Nov. 4 with proposals due Feb. 10. Replacement for curbside recycling was advertised Dec. 19 with proposals due Feb. 14.

But the mayor, who did not cite the number or quality of responses to the solicitations, wrote that evaluations of proposals, negotiations and then final contract awards could not possibly be completed by March 31, when the 15-year contracts expire. Even after that, she said, winners must buy trucks and hire staff.