Broward Garbage Monopoly Wants a Comeback
Control the stream.
Remove the leverage.
Raise the price.
That's the system Broward lived under for years with the old Resource Recovery Board. Broward County Commissioners told cities where their trash went and taxpayers got stuck with the bill. Rates climbed past $100 a ton. We were told that was normal.
It was normal…for a monopoly.
I don't need a consultant to explain Broward's garbage market to me. That consultant is me.
More than a decade ago, I was in the fight to break the old garbage monopoly. The insiders warned that the sky would fall if cities were allowed to shop for a better deal.
They were wrong.
Cities shopped. Vendors competed. Prices fell from more than $100 a ton into the $45 range. And for roughly 15 years, rates have stayed broadly between $45 and $55 a ton.
That's what happens when there's competition.
But insiders just wait for the next chance to rebuild the machine, and Broward already got a preview through the recycling bin.
After the old monopoly broke, cities finally had options. Then Waste Management got control of a major piece of the recycling stream. Once it controlled processing for cities that had signed with Sun Bergeron, the monopoly price pressure came right back. Rates that had been around $50/ton suddenly shot past $100, to $110 and higher.
Control the stream.
Remove the leverage.
Raise the price.
COST AND CONVENIENCE
Instead of paying those outrageous recycling fees, cities and residents made a choice. They threw it away, where the cost was still ½ as much.
It was terrible environmental policy but it proved the point. Voters don't care about the machinery behind the curb. They don't care if the garbage is burned, buried, trucked west, put on rail or launched to the moon.
They care about how much it costs and whether it leaves their house every week. When the bill goes up, nobody cares which part of the bureaucratic flow chart caused it.
They decided to throw it away because the free market still existed for regular garbage. We weren't fully captive yet.
Now the new Solid Waste Authority wants to close that escape valve.
FLOW CONTROL
The politicians and insiders want to shift the blame and hide behind lofty recycling goals, sustainability and a 40-year master plan. But we're in this shape precisely because they choked off the recycling stream in the first place. They want total control of your garbage so they can jack up the rates.
The genuine fear of getting gouged is brewing right on the dais, and local leaders are looking at a 40-year deal and asking where their options went.
Look at Sunrise. Commissioner Joey Scutto checked the actual numbers instead of the sales pitch. He outlined the mounting costs to your monthly bill, line by line, as it blasted past a 100% increase.
That's before the first shiny new facility is built. Before the ribbon cutting. Before the promises become bills.
Broward already lived this story once. Rates went over $100 a ton. Competition broke the monopoly. Prices fell. Taxpayers saved money for 15 years.
Now the same crowd wants the stream back.
Control the stream.
Remove the leverage.
Raise the price.
And the taxpayers will pay for it.