Miami-Dade County
Feedstock System AssessmentCondado de Miami-Dade
Evaluación del Sistema de Materiales

System Characterization — The County's Own NumbersCaracterización del Sistema — Las Propias Cifras del Condado

§1.2 — Generation, Disposal, and Diversion (2024 Baseline)Generación, Disposición y Desviación (Base 2024)

Miami-Dade County generated 5,156,683 tons of solid waste in 2024, of which 3,290,460 tons (≈9,015 TPD) was disposed rather than diverted — a 36% diversion rate (1,866,224 tons/yr diverted). The County's own Zero Waste Master Plan models full implementation of all 31 recommended strategies raising diversion to 77% — an additional 2,108,992 tons/yr diverted. Population served: 2,774,841 (2024), projected to 2,910,500 by 2030.

§1.3 — The County's Own Pyrolysis PrecedentEl Propio Precedente de Pirólisis del Condado

Appendix E of the ZWMP documents that the County itself piloted a BET-PRD 1000 pyrolysis system at South Dade Landfill — processing 150 tons of yard debris into 30 tons of biochar over approximately four months on less than half an acre — before setting the program aside for market-uncertainty reasons, not technical failure. The County has already validated the direction of thermochemical conversion; what the pilot lacked was a commercial structure sized to the county's actual residual volume. This document does not describe Carbotura as a biochar or pyrolysis vendor — Carbotura's elemental dissociation process (see Proposal §3) is a distinct, larger-scale manufacturing pathway — but the County's own pilot is directly relevant precedent for what this document proposes: conversion capacity matched to a real, continuing residual stream.El Apéndice E del PMCR documenta que el propio Condado piloteó un sistema de pirólisis BET-PRD 1000 en el Relleno Sanitario South Dade.

§1.4 — Appendix E — Additional Plan FindingsApéndice E — Hallazgos Adicionales del Plan

The ZWMP recommends phased three-stream collection (MSW / recyclables / organics) and explicitly rejects mixed-waste processing as a systemwide strategy. Its organics Alternative Scenario (anaerobic digestion + tunnel composting) was selected partly for an estimated +2,300 person-years of employment and +$670M in regional output — the same category of regional economic argument this Assessment and the companion Economic Impact Report extend to the residual-conversion layer (see EIR §2). Renewable natural gas revenue in the plan's organics model is conservatively priced at $2.50/MMBtu. C&D fines and above-ratio food scraps continue to landfill under the plan's own baseline scenario — both are named problem streams a residual-conversion facility absorbs alongside the core MSW residual.El PMCR recomienda la recolección en tres flujos por fases y rechaza explícitamente el procesamiento de residuos mixtos.

Logistics and InfrastructureLogística e Infraestructura

Miami-Dade County operates three Regional Transfer Stations (Northeast at 18701 NE 6th Ave — 1,200 TPD, Central at 1150 NW 20th St — 1,200 TPD, and West at 2900 SW 72nd Ave — 1,300 TPD) per the ZWMP infrastructure chapter. From there, material routes to the South Dade Landfill (2,100 TPD capacity) and the WM Medley Landfill (3,000 TPD capacity), with WM's Pembroke Pines MRF (750 TPD) and C&D MRF (1,200 TPD) handling recyclables and construction debris respectively. Beyond in-county capacity, the County exports to four out-of-county landfills — Okeechobee, the JED/St. Cloud landfill, Heart of Florida, and Broward County processing — a direct measure of how much value currently leaves the county with the material.El Condado de Miami-Dade opera tres Estaciones de Transferencia Regionales.

Cost StructureEstructura de Costos

§3.1 — Verified Disposal Fee Schedule (Effective October 1, 2025)Tarifa de Disposición Verificada (Vigente 1 oct. 2025)

§3.2 — Landfill Capacity Is the Binding ConstraintLa Capacidad de Rellenos Es la Restricción Vinculante

Zero Waste Master Plan — the Decision WindowPlan Maestro de Cero Residuos — la Ventana de Decisión

The County's WTE-related procurement question that shaped earlier planning cycles has been resolved — the Board approved a $65M WTE-related contract with AtkinsRealis. That decision is settled and is not the subject of this Assessment. The live decision for the County today is what happens to the plan's own residual stream once all 31 diversion strategies are running at full capacity: the plan closes 41 points of the diversion gap (36%→77%) but does not, on its own arithmetic, close the remaining 13 points to the Mayor's 90%-by-2040 commitment.La pregunta de adquisición relacionada con WTE del Condado que dio forma a ciclos de planificación anteriores ya se resolvió.

The Residual Stream — the Carbotura-Addressable GapEl Flujo Residual — la Brecha Direccionable por Carbotura

§5.1 — System-Wide Residual SummaryResumen Residual del Sistema

§5.2 — Phase Configuration PreviewVista Previa de Configuración por Fase

Conservative (Phase Initial): Sized against near-term disposal volume, well within the IMMEDIATE addressable stream while the ZWMP's 31 strategies are still ramping.Conservador (Fase Inicial):

Full deployment (Phase Expanded): Sized against the plan's own terminal residual (~3,237 TPD) — the volume that remains addressable indefinitely, independent of how successfully the County executes its own diversion strategies. See Proposal §2 for site-specific sizing.Despliegue completo (Fase Expandida):

Infrastructure Map — Waste System FacilitiesMapa de Infraestructura — Instalaciones del Sistema de Residuos

The following two-panel display shows current active waste management facilities across Miami-Dade County per the ZWMP infrastructure chapter. The right panel is always visible. When a Google Maps API key is configured in config.js, the interactive map renders in the left panel with bidirectional interaction.

Appendix A — Evidence ChainApéndice A — Cadena de Evidencia

Appendix B — Change FactorsApéndice B — Factores de Cambio

Appendix C — Sources and ReferencesApéndice C — Fuentes y Referencias

All sources are publicly accessible. No internal Carbotura identifiers are used in citations above. Data age noted for each source.

Appendix D — Authoritative GlossaryApéndice D — Glosario Autorizado