Dive Brief:
- Figures from the state show recycling in Broward County, FL dropped from 60% of household waste in 2013 to 52% in 2014. The state's goal is 75% by 2020, though the statewide average is 50%.
- Many Broward cities left Waste Management and Wheelabrator for a new disposal company, Sun Bergeron, therefore trash that was previously burned for electricity in Wheelabrator's WTE plant was instead dumped in a Central Florida landfill due to the new management. Overall, Broward County increased its landfilled trash from 38% to 46%. Additionally, traditional recycling by residents decreased.
- Broward produced the most garbage of any county in the state last year — 3.8 million tons of municipal solid waste.
Dive Insight:
Upheavals in the waste industry contributed to the recycling decline in Broward. A disposal alliance among cities broke up, leading to new competition. Therefore, once management was changed, the trash that was previously incinerated in Wheelabrator's waste-to-energy plant started going to a landfill 172 miles away.
"It just makes me feel like we've taken such a big step backward,'' said Broward Commissioner Beam Furr.
Next year's recycling percentages should be higher, as Sun Bergeron has a contract to burn 78,000 tons of Broward garbage a year in its new incinerator in West Palm Beach, FL.
