Broward considers new trash plant

Cities, county at odds over timeframe

Broward County commissioners will consider a vote next week to find a contractor to build its own energy-to-waste incinerator as part of a longterm strategy to stop providing garbage to Waste Management that winds up in a landfill.

Details still have to be worked out, including how much the project would cost and how taxpayers would pay for it, including whether Broward’s cities participate in a taxing authority, or the county takes on the bill by itself.

County Commissioner Beam Furr, who is leading the county’s efforts, said the plant would burn waste to create electricity on whatever couldn’t be recycled.

And if the trash couldn’t be burned, it would be sent to the landfill as a last resort.

The plant would likely be built at the site of the Monarch Hill landfill, near Coconut Creek, or off U.S. Highway 27, near Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines. Both are pieces of county-owned land.

But that on Friday drew the ire of city leaders who felt they were being pushed out of the process.

The cities and the county have been meeting for years with the plan to ultimately create a new taxing district to get into the garbage business. They had initially planned on hiring an executive director to manage the new consortium of cities and their efforts to both become the alternative provider to Waste Management and create new recycling options.

“This is a pivot on the entire future of what we’ve been planning,” said Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan, who said he was “disoriented, frustrated and skeptical.”

“What did we do for the last two years?” asked Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steve Glassman.

Cooper City Mayor Greg Ross said the county is being “premature” to go to bid now because nobody knows how much this will cost and “is this the right answer.”

He understands the impatience, but would rather go slowly.

“Good things come to those who wait. You’ve got to do it right the first time. You’re only going to get one shot at it,” he said after the meeting.

But Furr said he’s now ready to speed up what has been years of talk. He said getting an executive director hired is still a “long ways down the road,” and the county would be “doing the footwork on the front end so that once we get this established, we can hit the ground running. The county [is] doing what they would need to do anyway.”

His reason for moving this all along now: the crushing fire last month at the incinerator plant in Doral, in Miami

Dade County. The smoke from the trash fire reached unhealthy levels, and forced people indoors and two nearby schools closed early.

“It reminded me if we had the same thing happen here, we don’t have a fallback,” Furr said. Broward previously had two incinerators, but one plant was closed by Waste Management.

“If that went down, then we don’t have a place to put 800,000 tons of garbage” each year, he said, and trash would be rerouted to the landfill instead of being burned.

Watching Miami-Dade, which is now “scrambling,” means he wants Broward to avoid the same fate, Furr said.

“The point is you need redundancy as well, in case one goes down, the other can suffice while you’re fixing the other one,” he said.

The privately run county facility in Doral caught fire on Feb. 12 and burned for three weeks.

The Miami Herald reported that the county now has to determine where to put a new plant, a decision that’s been under study for years as the existing facility was planned for replacement with a modern building.

Cooper City’s Ross said there are three burners on the incinerator site in Broward, and there have been times when one has been shut down for repairs or maintenance. “A lot of times it’s down,” he said. “Now if there’s a fire, then sure, it could affect all three. And that would be literally a tragedy.”

Long history

In 2020, city leaders revived their committee called the Broward County Solid Waste and Recycling Working Group. They were unhappy with Waste Management’s monopoly after the company announced it would no longer accept mixed-paper to recycle.

Waste Management cited both residents’ improperly recycling and a global disinterest in purchasing the poor-quality recycled goods to drop paper recycling, which includes newspapers, magazines and mail. After community outrage, Waste Management quickly reversed course.

But it was too late. County and city officials said they were still committed to creating their own waste and recycling system.

The consortium of cities said they would take over the disposal of the trash, and decide where the trash goes once it leaves homes and businesses, and how it gets disposed. It’ll also eventually tackle all things recycling, including collecting and disposing recyclables.

Fort Lauderdale’s Glassman said he wants progress, and for the cities — who need the garbage disposed of on behalf of their residents — to stay involved.

“There has to be a ‘cometo-Jesus’ moment and everyone comes to the table,” he said after the meeting Friday. The group has been meeting for “two years and hours and hours on this. Has it all been for naught? Have we wasted our time? If we’re going to be dictated to, that’s not equal partnership.”