Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park, colloquially known as Mount Trashmore, is a

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

site located in an unincorporated area of northern

Broward County, Florida Broward County ( ) is a County (United States), county in Florida, United States, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the List of the most ...

, bordered by the cities of

Pompano Beach Pompano Beach ( ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale and 36 miles north of Miami. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoa ...

, Coconut Creek, and

Deerfield Beach Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County line. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,859, making it the tenth-largest city in Broward County. Located 41 miles north of Miam ...

, alongside the east side of

Florida's Turnpike Florida's Turnpike, designated as unsigned highway, unsigned State Road 91 (SR 91), is a controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll road in the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). Spanning approximate ...

between mile markers 69 and 70. It is owned by

Waste Management, Inc. Waste Management, Inc., doing business as WM, is a waste management, comprehensive waste, and environmental services company operating in North America. Founded in 1968, the company is headquartered in the Bank of America Tower in Houston, Te ...

The landfill dates to 1965, when it started as the North Broward County Resource Recovery and Central Disposal Sanitary Landfill, a ten-foot high pile of debris in what was then a remote section of the county. It currently takes in an average of 3,500 tons of trash daily and has the capacity to accept 10,000 tons of trash daily. The site has long emitted foul odors into the air of neighboring Coconut Creek. Complaints from the city in the 1990s resulted in Waste Management being fined for violating air standards. The company attempted to alleviate the problem by covering the garbage with extra dirt and spraying deodorizer from 55-gallon drums. In 2008, Waste Management withdrew its application to increase the height of the landfill from 225 feet to 280 feet. In 2011, Waste Management renamed the site the "Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park." In 2010, after Coconut Creek threatened a lawsuit, Waste Management agreed that particularly odorous trash, such as food and other materials that decay, would no longer go into the landfill after three years. After Waste Management received a series of warnings from Broward County in 2012, it also agreed to place a cap over 10 acres of the landfill, spread 18 inches of soil over trash instead of the required 6 inches, employ greater use of odor-neutralizing chemicals, and pay over $100,000 in fines and costs. Nevertheless, by 2013, Waste Management had accumulated $1.6 million in fines, and Coconut Creek was still plagued by foul odors from Monarch Hill. In 2011, Monarch Hill was used as filming location for the film ''

Rock of Ages Rock of Ages is an epithet that is used in some translations of Isaiah 26, Isaiah 26:4 and may refer to: Films * Rock of Ages (1918 film), ''Rock of Ages'' (1918 film), a British silent film by Bertram Phillips * Rock of Ages (2012 film), ''Roc ...

'' (2012). Doubling for

Mount Lee Mount Lee is a peak in the Santa Monica Mountains, located in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Hollywood Sign is located on its southern slope. History The original unnamed peak was one of the "three sisters" along wi ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, a 20-foot tall replica of the Hollywood Sign was built on the southwest area of the hill for the filming of a scene from the film. The set was taken down after filming concluded.

References

{{coord, 26.28349, -80.16166, display=title Geography of Broward County, Florida Landfills in the United States Pompano Beach, Florida Coconut Creek, Florida Deerfield Beach, Florida