By Riley Kaminer
Most Miamians don’t think twice about what happens after their trash bags hit the curb. But the growing mountain of waste is an urgent problem – one that requires innovation beyond what traditional recycling efforts have achieved.
Enter the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority (MDIA). Today, MDIA launched its fifth Public Innovation Challenge, offering at least $300,000 in funding to startups that can help improve waste diversion and reduce contamination in recycling efforts. The goal is ambitious: find new ways to shrink the amount of waste headed for landfills while making it easier for residents to participate in the process.
Leigh-Ann Buchanan, President and CEO of MDIA, sees this as an opportunity for Miami to take the lead in tackling waste issues with cutting-edge solutions.
“Reducing landfill waste and improving waste diversion is crucial to ensuring the continued health and well-being of Miami residents and fragile ecosystems – especially as our population continues to grow,” Buchanan said. “This challenge not only provides an opportunity for startups with cutting-edge solutions to make a real impact but also demonstrates our region’s leadership within the global resilience community.”
The stakes are high. Miami-Dade generates over five million tons of waste annually, yet only about 37% is actually recycled. A significant portion of that recyclable material is lost due to contamination – when non-recyclable items are mixed in, making entire batches unusable. Meanwhile, the county’s landfills are filling up, creating a long-term environmental and financial problem.
“The South Dade landfill, which is the county’s only landfill, is expected to reach capacity in the next five years with limited expansion options,” Buchanan told Refresh Miami. “We often don’t have more land to expand on, given where our geography is placed, and so it just became very clear that there was an opportunity here to identify solutions that could at least incrementally solve this problem.”
That’s why Miami-Dade County is looking for fresh ideas. The challenge calls for early-to-growth stage startups to present solutions that can improve waste diversion and recycling efforts. Proposals might include apps that guide residents on proper waste sorting to reduce contamination, platforms that connect residents to local recycling resources and offer participation incentives, or data-driven tools that help track and optimize waste management. Another area of interest is technology that repurposes organic waste before it reaches landfills, further enhancing sustainability efforts across the county.
“This is a game-changing moment for Miami-Dade,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava shared in a statement. “As our community continues to grow, we must use all the tools in our box to reimagine how we manage our waste now and in the future.”
For startups, this is a rare opportunity to pilot solutions in a real-world setting with the backing of the county’s Department of Solid Waste Management (DSWM). Selected companies will receive $100,000 each to test their technology with DSWM, which manages waste collection and recycling services for more than 350,000 households in Miami-Dade.
Aneisha Daniel, Director of DSWM, emphasized the importance of finding scalable solutions. “As Miami-Dade continues to grow, effective waste diversion is essential to building a more sustainable community,” she said. “Through this challenge, we aim to discover innovative solutions that will transform waste into opportunities for a greener future.”
This challenge builds on MDIA’s past successes. Since launching less than two years ago, the organization has run four previous challenges, attracting more than 350 startups representing $6.5 billion in revenue and nearly $2 billion in funding raised.
“We had 11 companies pilot with Miami-Dade County in that time, three pilots just concluded, and we have eight active pilots going,” Buchanan said. “What’s been really fascinating is that we’ve been able to work closely with Miami-Dade County to streamline processes that would otherwise serve as impediments for innovative companies with emerging technologies.”
Traditionally, the procurement process for piloting new technologies can take up to 18 months, but Buchanan noted that MDIA has significantly reduced that timeline. “In some of our challenges, we’ve seen companies go from challenge to pilot in less than six months, which is two-thirds shorter than the usual process,” she said.
Looking ahead, Buchanan wants to take MDIA’s model beyond Miami. “We recognize that MDIA is the first public innovation authority in the United States, and we’re seeing amazing outcomes from this model,” she said. “It seems unfair to keep our insights siloed. There are so many municipalities, even just in South Florida, that could use this type of vehicle.”
To apply for the waste challenge, find out more here and apply by Monday, April 21.
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