As part of her highly successful monthly program, designed to obtain a “hands-on” appreciation of the everyday pressures and challenges that local private and public sector institutions face on a daily basis, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Lynda Bell on Jan. 18 became a member of the county’s Public Works and Solid Waste Department as a trash truck trainee under the supervision of Trash Truck Driver I Rhonda Buroker.
During her “Work Day,” Commissioner Bell and Buroker, took a full trash container truck and unloaded the refuse at the county’s Eureka Drive Trash and Recycling Center.
Bell received a hands-on briefing on how the county uses residents’ garbage and converts most of it into reusable means like fuel that not only powers the plant itself but provides electricity to 50,000 households each year, as well as produce bio-mass fuel created from high-grade trash. Commissioner Bell completed her “Work Day” by inspecting the South Dade Landfill adjacent to the Town of Cutler Bay.
“As residents, we often take for granted the good people who collect and recycle our trash, but after today, I was very impressed by the way these very hardworking county employees commit to their jobs in keeping our communities clean,” Commissioner Ball said.
“At a time where we must find solutions to our serious economic problems, this department uses every means necessary to maximize efficiency, care for the environment, and give back useable products that all the community can use.”
The Department of Public Works and Solid Waste Management is the largest government owned and operated waste management system in the southeastern United States. Its workforce provides curbside collection of garbage and trash to more than 320,000 households, operates 13 Neighborhood Trash and Recycling Centers and administers the collection of recyclables from 350,000 homes.
If you are a business owner who would like to invite Commissioner Bell for a “Work Day,” or if you would like more information on the program, contact her office at 305-378- 6677.
