Segment aired on August 26, 2026
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — South Florida is in the grips of a growing solid waste crisis, with landfills quickly filling up and recycling falling way short.
Just weeks after Miami-Dade unveiled its zero waste master plan, Broward has approved a master plan of its own.
After 10 years of planning and pitching, the Broward Solid Waste Authority finally has something to celebrate.
Its solid waste master plan has won approval from a supermajority of cities and is moving forward, with the potential to reshape recycling and waste reduction across the county.
“We were able to reach the 80% threshold,” said Mike Ryan, chair of the Solid Waste Authority governing board. “We need to reduce, reuse and recycle. And it’s not just for the environment, landfill. It’s good economics.”
The Solid Waste Authority was formed in 2023 but had been meeting and strategizing for the past 10 years, trying to get to this exact point: a standardized approach to recycling and composting with an ambitious goal of diverting at least 60% of its waste from landfills in a way cities can afford.
“Right now, this is not economically viable, where every city’s been on their own,” Ryan said.
“We’re generating 5 million tons of trash a year. Much of that has value and can be extracted. Much of that should not be going to the landfill or waste of energy. And so that’s our job now, to break these waste streams up and create long-term contracts to achieve our goals,” Ryan said.
So now the hard work really begins, securing and reviewing proposals in the next few months that can be enacted countywide at the best price.