Florida is booming and burning more trash. Residents say it’s making them sick – By J.J. McCorvey (NBC News) / Oct 29, 2023
Tampa area officials want to tap Inflation Reduction Act funds to help expand one of Florida’s 10 incinerators, which they say are often preferable to landfills. Critics worry the plants raise health risks.
Like many booming metros, Tampa is finding that more people equals more garbage. In response, officials there are leaning into an approach popular in Florida: Set it on fire.
“All areas that are experiencing growth are going to find issues of capacity” for managing waste, said Jack Mariano, the commissioner of Pasco County, just north of Tampa’s Hillsborough County. “Everybody’s facing: Where are we gonna put the trash?”
In September, Pasco authorities approved a $540 million plan to add a fourth boiler to the county’s waste-to-energy facility, or WTE, boosting capacity at the incinerator complex by around 50% while feeding more power — from a turbine spun by steam heated through garbage burning — to the electric grid.
