Miami-Dade’s recycling reaches 100,000 tons

In less than two years Miami-Dade County has reached an important milestone – over 100,000 tons of paper, plastic, metal cans, glass and other materials have been removed from Miami-Dade’s waste stream and recycled under the new single-stream recycling program.

“It took us less time to reach and surpass the 100,000-ton mark under our single-stream recycling program than it did under our old two-bin system,” said Miami-Dade solid waste director Kathleen Woods-Richardson.

Miami-Dade began recycling in May 1990. Since then, the County has collected a total of about 870,000 tons of recyclable materials, with 100,000 of those tons coming after Miami-Dade converted to single-stream recycling in late June 2008.

In addition to saving resources such as metal ores and trees, recycling helps conserve energy, water and landfill space. Additionally, the reduced energy needs of handling recycled materials over raw materials results in decreased greenhouse gas production.