With just three months to go before a crucial deadline, Broward County has passed what officials are calling the \u201clinchpin\u201d of the master plan of the Solid Waste Authority\u2019s ambitious effort to massively increase recycling and reduce local trash output.<\/p>\n
The 28 municipalities that are part of the Solid Waste Authority must vote on adopting the master plan by Aug. 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Broward County Commission recently did its part, passing an \u201cinterlocal agreement\u201d that forms an \u201cindependent special district\u201d that\u2019s \u201ccharged with coordinating regional solid waste disposal and recycling programs.\u201d<\/p>\n And while it reads like a bureaucratic technical manual, the Solid Waste Authority\u2019s master plan cannot function without the interlocal agreement that just passed, said County Commissioner Beam Furr.<\/p>\n \u201cIt preserves our landfill, it preserves our waste energy plant and it\u00a0puts the county in \u2018most favored nation\u2019 status when negotiating disposal rates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The master plan is the culmination of years of study concerning how Broward missed the opportunity decades ago to develop an organized strategy for disposing of 5 million tons of garbage a year.<\/p>\n Broward\u2019s recycling rate is currently 38%. Through education and incentives, the master plan hopes to increase that number to 75%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mike Ryan, mayor of Sunrise and chairman of the SWA, said the plan so far has secured about half of the support it needs to pass.<\/p>\n Governments representing 80% of the participating cities\u2019 population must sign off for the plan to go into effect.\u00a0Among those that have said yes so far are Tamarac, Coconut Creek, West Park, Plantation, Dania Beach, Lighthouse Point and Weston. Some other cities have not yet voted.<\/p>\n If the master plan were to fail to reach its vote target, each city would have to come up with its own plan, negotiating individually with Waste Management and other private companies for disposal of trash and recycling.<\/p>\n