Every year, more than two million tons of municipal solid waste is generated in Pinellas County. To meet the challenge of managing the waste stream, an integrated approach is used by Pinellas County Solid Waste:

1. Reduce, reuse and recycle: Identify, coordinate and promote opportunities for citizens to practice the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) to minimize the amount of waste generated in our community.
2. Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Facility: Utilize incineration to reduce the volume of waste to be landfilled by 90% and convert waste to energy to produce electricity for up to 45,000 households. Also, metals are recovered from the ash and recycled.
3. Landfill: Most of the incoming garbage is processed in the WTE facility, but the landfill is required for waste that cannot be burned, waste that exceeds capacity at the WTE and ash resulting from the WTE process.

The mission of Pinellas County Solid Waste is to provide safe, competitive and environmentally sound integrated solid waste services to all citizens. These services emphasize public awareness to enable our citizens to make educated choices concerning proper management of their solid waste.

Return to top