#FreeTheCompost
A FIRE
The Short Story
As you may know, in 2023, the county's only incinerator burned down. This is where we used to burn most of our trash. And one day, the building also burned down along with all the trash.
But a $1.5 billion problem was left behind.
Since then, the county has witnessed scores of meetings, protests, petitions, review boards, plannings... And yet, we are still not close to beginning to know what we'll do with roughly 5 million tons of trash each year.
(Meanwhile, tax payers are paying for having their trash shipped out of state, to central Florida and even as far as Georgia).
WHY THIS MATTERS TO US
Food is Never Waste
With all its water content, food is the heaviest item in the waste stream. Organic matter makes up over 50% of the total!
Farms like ours have been educating on this issue and collecting food scraps for years. The benefit is not only in keeping all that heavy weight out of the waste stream, but we have also been repurposing it all for the benefit of our community:
We feed people when the food is viable. Or we then feed animals when we can. And, at the end of our path, we feed it to our worms and microbes to turn it into compost. (aka organic soil to grow beautiful things).
Until now, we have been quietly composting alongside many great, forward-looking companies, (plus the Village of Pinecrest, and the Miccosukee Indian Tribe), and we assumed that common sense would eventually lead to county-wide expansions of these types of win/win projects found in farms like ours.
We are now at a crossroads
(UPDATED August 7, 2025) Over the past 24 months, the county has been trying to decide on a path forward after the chaos brought on by the self-immolating incinerator.
After the mayor's 202 page report and a July 16 commissioner's meeting, this is where believe that we stand:
• Several commissioners and the mayor appear to support composting operations. However:
• To the heartbreak of most environmental groups, the commissioners also voted to create a new incinerator. Politically active groups are now attempting to convey to the commissioners that this is a short-sighted approach that will keep Miami Dade County from modernizing and becoming zero-waste.
• In the event that the commissioners can not be convinced that a new incinerator would be a short-sighted mistake, we are working to propose as many contemporary, zero-waste concepts [such as composting] into and around the plans for a new incinerator.
• The commissioner who was working on legislation that had language dangerous for composting farms stated that she was reworking the language and that she will have revisions likely around September. We are reservedly hopeful that there will be improvements to the previous version.
• Fertile Earth continues to be involved in providing support and information to the AG practices subcommittees. And we also continue to voice our concerns and to educate the public on the issues.
Thank you for standing with us during this critical juncture for our community!
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As we cautiously wait for updates from the commissioners in the next several months, we invite you to read and sign our new "pledge of support" to help convey to the mayor and commissioners that you support a zero-waste future for Miami Dade County.
