SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): In 2020, Pinellas County released a solid waste master plan — a road map for how it would deal with the next 30 years of garbage — that noted that each Pinellas resident generates an average of more than 12 pounds of waste per day. Meanwhile, the county population is growing, on track to add another 200,000 residents by 2050. The current landfill, at the county Solid Waste Disposal Complex near 28th Street, will fill up around 2100, the county projects. Then, the county will have to pay to truck waste out of the county. It’s got that much time because of the county’s waste-to-energy facility, which reduces most of the trash it takes into ash about one-tenth its original size.
In three years, though, that facility will be processing all the trash it can handle, meaning more garbage will head straight to the landfill. If that’s allowed to happen, it will fill up at an exponential rate, said Stephanie Watson, the recycling and outreach programs manager for the county’s solid waste department. Officials hope to address that problem through changes to the county’s solid waste ordinance, which Watson said is “in need of a major refresh” — it hasn’t been thoroughly updated since the 1980s.
The solid waste department will bring findings and suggestions to the Pinellas County Commission in August, Watson said. Before then, residents will have chances to weigh in at three public-input sessions this month. Many of the proposed ordinance changes would likely focus on nixing outdated language and reflecting modern regulations, Watson said. But she suspects residents in unincorporated Pinellas will be more interested in the solid waste department’s desire to add mandatory recycling to the ordinance.
Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com
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