Millions of residents in Miami-Dade County toss a combined 10-pounds of garbage every day, according to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). According to the FDEP, only 18 percent of Miami-Dade county’s waste is recycled. Compared to other counties like Broward and Palm Beach, which recycle 33 and 45 percent of their waste, respectively, Miami-Dade is one of the lowest in the state of Florida. It’s a perfect storm of issues: contamination from people throwing the wrong items into recycling bins, markets not willing to buy materials, and the way Florida records recycling numbers. “Recycling is a business,” says Jeanmarie Massa, Recycling Coordinator for Miami-Dade County. “[Miami-Dade]’s part of the business is we are providing a service to our residents.”
In Miami-Dade County, private companies have handled recycling since the 1990s. Companies incur the cost of recycling in a certain area. They take into account the price of a truck, the wage of a driver, fuel for the truck, maintenance and more. Once they budget those costs out, they give the county a price for their services. The county pays a ‘per household fee’ and receives a set amount of money for every ton the company collects. This bidding is why only half the cities in Miami-Dade use recycling services offered by the county. If the price isn’t right, cities create their own recycling programs.
For example, Coral Gables does not contract with Miami-Dade and therefore has a different standard for recycling. In Coral Gables, residents receive a 14-gallon recycling bin, which they place in their backyards. Every week employees enter the yard and check to see if the correct items are in the bin. Once the wrong items are removed, it’s dumped into a truck.
Most cities follow a similar routine: trucks come by, pick up recycling bins, and send the materials to a transfer station. At the transfer station, workers try their best to sort out and take away items that can’t be recycled.
From there, separate trucks venture off to Reuters recycling facility in Pembroke Pines, one of the largest recycling facilities in the Southeastern United States. The facility is owned by Waste Management Incorporated, one of three companies Miami-Dade County pays to handle recycling in the county. Hundreds of tons of recyclable material goes through Reuters each day.
At the end of the day, facilities contract with counties because they are creating bails of recycled material to sell to countries and companies. If material is not sold then it is not recycled.
Waste Management spokesperson Dawn McCormick attributes Miami-Dade’s low number to the issue of recyled material not being sold. It stems from what she calls ‘wishcycling,’ when people throw away items they think can be recycled. “People want to do the right thing for the environment,” McCormick says. “They’re kind of wishcycling: ‘Oh, I hope this can be recycled. Let me put it in and they’ll figure it out. Oh, I hope this.’”