Dumpster Rental in Bay Harbor Islands, FL

From Mangrove Swamps to Bay Harbor Islands

Just over the Biscay Bay in Miami-Dade County lies Bay Harbor Island, which is separate from the mainland and accessed by the Broad Causeway. The town owes its history, in large part, to a Russian named Shepard Broad. Broad came to the United States in 1940 to live in the subtropical paradise of Florida and worked to fill in what were then mangrove swamps and would become prime real estate. In 1947, the town of Bay Harbor was incorporated.

Town of Bay Harbor Environmental Guidance for Citizens

Residents of Bay Harbor enjoy one of the safest and enjoyable places to live, with views over the Atlantic Ocean and a personal hometown feel. The Town leaders wish to preserve this environment by offering environmental guidance to its residents and visitors with tips to reduce negative environmental factors. Some of these guidelines include:

• Reducing pollution in the wastewater system is important. Some pollution flows from lawns to the waters but can be reduced by buying biodegradable, non-toxic, non-phosphorus, or water-soluble products for residential lawns and using the minimal amounts of these products. The city also suggests composting grass, keeping irrigation heads away from paved areas, bagging grass for pickup, and never pouring chemicals down drains.
• When disposing of electronics, the Town requests that such items (e.g. computers, monitors, keyboards, hard drives, printers, televisions, VCRs, audio equipment, video equipment, telephones, and hand-held devices) are recycled. One way to recycle in Bay Harbor is through the annual environmental picnic. Additionally, residents can drop electronic items off at any Miami-Dade transfer station.
• Some residents throw light bulbs into the trash without thinking. This can be a problem when fluorescent bulbs are improperly included in regular trash. Because these bulbs contain mercury, they should be taken to one of the County’s Home Chemical Collection centers located at West Date at 8831 NW 58 Street as well as in South Dade at 23707 SW 97 Avenue via Gate-B.

Bioreactor Landfills

Experts in waste management are always looking for new ways to limit waste, such as increasing the percentage or recycling and using waste-to-energy incineration systems. This is a natural and necessary trend as populations increase while space remains constant. One such area of development has been the development of the state-of-the-art bioreactor landfill.

The key feature of the bioreactor landfill is a system of injection that, primarily using strategically placed pipes, circulates moisture by adding gas condensate, landfill leachate, water, stormwater runoff, and wastewater treatment sludge. As these liquids are added and circulated into the landfill, the decomposition of waste is accelerated. A traditional landfill, for example, has a decomposition period of somewhere between twenty-five to thirty-five years; conversely, the bioreactor landfill reduces this time to a period ranging from five to ten years.

There are several advantages to the bioreactor landfill technology:

• The first benefit is that the faster waste disposal period enables landfill area to be safely converted to recreational areas of land that can be used for other purposes in a much shorter period of time.
• Second, bioreactor post-landfill sites are also safer than areas converted from traditional landfills.
• Third, catalyzed decomposition means that the landfill gets a much higher rate efficiency as decomposition makes space for new waste, and reduces the demand to create new landfills.
• Fourth, new bioreactor technology can increase the collection of methane gas. Landfills often burn methane gas that results from decomposition, while more advanced landfills integrate methane gas collection systems that capture these valuable chemicals and use the methane for energy. As you might expect, as bioreactor landfill technology speeds the decomposition process that creates methane, the amount of valuable methane gas is also accelerated and can be used as a source of energy.
• And a final advantage of the bioreactors is that they increase environmental efficiency. The new technology utilizes liquid waste, such as sludge from wastewater treatment sludge and runoff into the landfill system. At the same time, the costs and efforts of managing leachate are eased because it is continually circulated within the system.