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Keep out Canadian trash
Associated Press
FILE PHOTO
Trash invades MI from across the border.
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Federal law and international treaties may stop Michigan from banning Canadian and other imported trash, but a burial fee on all trash might achieve the same goal, advocates said Monday.
A coalition of 21 environmental, religious and civic groups launched the “Don’t Trash Michigan” campaign with a news conference at the Ambassador Bridge.
In recent weeks, a steady stream of garbage-filled trucks has been crossing the border, carrying the refuse of Toronto for burial at a landfill in Wayne County’s Sumpter Township, about 25 miles southeast of Detroit.
In 2001, Michigan imported 3.6 million tons of trash, about one-fifth of the state’s total trash. The Toronto trash will increase imports by about 1.1 million tons.
A centerpiece of the Don’t Trash group’s program is to levy a landfill burial fee on all trash, he said.
Such a surcharge would apply equally to imported and in-state waste, so it would not be a violation of interstate commerce or the North American Free Trade Agreement, he said.
“That is something that’s been floating around as a solution to address some budget issues and maybe make it less economical to export trash to Michigan,” said Patricia Spitzley, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Quality.
Spitzley said the DEQ is researching the fee proposal, but has yet to come down on either side of the issue, either as a budget booster or a dumping deterrent.
The coalition says a fee would remove the economic incentive to dump trash in Michigan, the only Great Lakes state that does not levy a solid waste surcharge. Indiana charges up to $3.10 per ton while the cost is $1.27 in Illinois, Spitzley said. Wisconsin charges $3 a ton, Ohio charges $1.75, she said. State Rep. Jerry Kooiman, R-Grand Rapids, has introduced a bill to levy a $3 per ton burial fee.
Another proposal is to expand the coverage of Michigan’s bottle bill, which now requires a 10-cent deposit on carbonated soft drinks and beer bottles and cans.
Among other members of Don’t Trash Michigan are the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, League of Conservation Voters, Public Interest Research Group in Michigan and the Michigan Environmental Council and League of Women Voters.
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