Monday 16th August, 2010 Our visit to the Miami-Dade County’s Department of Solid Waste Management. The team arrived at the Department of Solid Waste Management, Public Information and Outreach Division where the staff were eagerly awaiting our arrival. Upon arrival our group was warmly greeted by Mrs. Gayle Love, Senior Division Director of the Public Information and Outreach Division, and all of the senior management at the Department of Solid Waste. Mrs. Kathleen Woods-Richardson, the Department’s Director, energetically introduced us to the management team and set an interactive tone for the rest of the day’s activities.
The group was given an overview of the operations and then engaged in a question and answer session. The mission of this department is “To provide our customers with exceptional waste collection, recycling and disposal services that protects, preserve and improve our environment and the quality of life in our community” of 2.5 million persons and that is exactly what the management and staff of Miami Dade County are doing and making money from it too. An interesting point to note is the company is self-sustaining since they receive no public funding, however they manage to have a budget of 400 million dollars. According to the department’s director, ‘garbage is money’ and yes by the end of the tour we saw the money. This session was particularly important since there was a lot of interest in this particular field by most students. At the end of this session, students were presented with tokens and light refreshments before going on a tour of the Central Transfer Station.
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