On February 12, 2023, a county-owned incinerator, Covanta Energy, caught fire and burned for nearly three weeks. Residents in the area were told by the fire department to “stay indoors, keep windows and doors closed, recirculating the air inside the home.” Many experienced eye, nose, and throat irritation from the incident. This tragic story helped bring forward the issue of how we handle our waste in Miami-Dade County, where residents produce twice as much waste compared to the average American.

Since then, the county has seen countless meetings, slowly developing a Zero Waste Master Plan, but we’re still far from a solution for what to do with roughly two million tons of trash each year. And so, at a $62 million taxpayer expense in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, we export trash to central Florida and beyond.

In December 2024, a 109-page Report was released from the Mayor’s office with lots of reasonable recommendations, but it ultimately concluded that there wasn’t enough data to make informed regulations. It clearly recommended that county officials seek out expert advice, and even outlined in detail a one-year pilot study to assess what is required to protect our uniquely shallow groundwater. Today, six months later, we learn that an ordinance is already being written behind closed doors, excluding local soil experts and farmers from the process.

This “Ordinance relating to Zoning and Environmental Protection,” which is supposed to make composting safer and easier, does the exact opposite. Instead of creating evidence-based rules, or borrowing from the State’s existing regulations

on composting safely, the ordinance slaps on extra permits and definitions that would effectively shut down the few composting operations that exist now. This sets the stage for a waste management monopoly.

With up to 60% of the waste stream being compostable materials, composting is a vital ingredient in a Zero Waste Master Plan. It deserves its own permit. Not the same Resource Recovery Permit required by facilities that smelt aluminum or incinerators that end up in flames.

Fertile Earth Worm Farm has made repeated attempts to meet with elected officials and staff to provide input to the drafts with little success.

So we need your help! Write to your Commissioner today and ask them to protect farmers' right to compost, and fix the issue with the Bond Ordinance that's the root cause of all these senseless restrictions!