News From the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County
PALM BEACH COUNTY MOVES INTO FIRST PLACE RECYCLING POSITION
Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County exceeds
Florida Department of Environmental Protection Recycling Goal
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Palm Beach County has once again exceeded the 75 percent recycling goal set by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). Palm Beach County achieved an overall 80 percent recycling rate in 2022, placing the county first among all 67 counties in the state. That’s a two-point increase from 2021 when the county achieved a 78 percent rate. Only two other counties exceeded the 75 percent goal in 2022: Collier at 78 percent and Charlotte at 76 percent.
Palm Beach County recycled approximately 3.2 million tons of the 4 million tons of municipal solid waste collected in 2022.
“Recycling is a community effort and recognition for this achievement goes to the millions of residents, visitors and businesses that participate in our dual-stream system, as well as Authority staff who work toward our recycling efforts every day,” said Executive Director Dan Pellowitz. “We owe this outstanding achievement to our highly successful residential and commercial recycling programs, the performance of our waste-to-energy facilities in recovering metals and energy from waste, the performance of our permitted partners recovering and putting to beneficial use yard waste, construction and demolition debris, concrete, and much more.”
Our county’s recycling success is possible because of all who recognize the value of recycling and are dedicated to ‘recycling right’ every day in Palm Beach County. While this is an achievement to be celebrated, there’s still more work to be done. Some incorrectly believe that recycling isn’t taking place in Palm Beach County. The Authority’s Public Affairs and Recycling Department is dedicated to dispelling recycling myths and ensuring every resident, visitor and business in the county is properly informed and inspired to participate in recycling.
The Solid Waste Authority invites the public to visit their Recovered Materials Processing Facility (recycling facility) to see the recycling operation themselves and learn more. To arrange a presentation and/or tour, please contact education@swa.org or visit swa.org/education to learn more. For more information on Palm Beach County’s recycling program, contact Recycling, Education & Marketing Manager and Palm Beach County Recycling Coordinator Jessica Winter at jwinter@swa.org.
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About the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County
The Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (SWA or Authority) is a Dependent Special District that was created by the Florida Legislature in 1975. Since then, the SWA has developed an award-winning integrated solid waste management system to handle the county’s waste and recyclables. We call ourselves AWAY: whether you throw it, recycle it or flush it AWAY, we put your waste to work. Each year, we:
- Process almost 90,000 tons of recyclables
- Burn approximately 1.8 million tons of trash generate electricity at renewable energy facilities
- Produce enough electricity to power approximately 90,000 homes
- Recycle more than 150,000 tons of wastewater treatment residuals (sludge from flushes) into an environmentally-friendly fertilizer amendment
- Safely dispose of more than 4.2 million pounds of home hazards
- Collect rainwater from the roofs of Renewable Energy Facility 2 and store it in a 2-million gallon cistern, which is used as part of the energy making process
Anyone can sign up on the SWA’s website to receive SWA news, calendar updates, job announcements or other web postings of interest. Should you sign up online to receive SWA’s news releases, we can remove you from the distribution list by sending a reply with the subject “REMOVE” as a reply to this email.
Connect with the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County at swa.org or on social media:
