Michigan residents, environmentalists and lawmakers said they're tired of waiting for the federal government to stop international trash invasion.
"Michigan cannot sit back and wait on Congress," Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Monday in a written statement. "There is action we can, and should, take to protect Michigan families from the health hazards created by imported trash."
Granholm signed legislation Monday that would ban Canadian and other out-of-country waste if the U.S. Congress passes legislation to give Michigan that power.
Waste management services are waiting to see if this law will have any impact at the federal level, said Waste Management of Michigan Inc. spokesperson Tom Horton.
"The fact (is) that trash coming in from Canada could be hazardous to citizens in Michigan," Granholm spokesperson Liz Boyd said. "The more trash we have coming, the more trucks, the more likely there will be accidents with those trucks and trash that could be hazardous to Michiganians' health."
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, introduced legislation to Congress in 2001 to give the state authority to ban or limit trash from Canada, Rogers' spokesperson Sylvia Warner said, adding the legislation deals with international trash household waste, not commercial waste.
There is no effective way to control the content in the trash, Warner said. Inspectors have found in dump trucks batteries, marijuana and medical materials that are otherwise illegal to dispose of in Michigan, she said.
On March 2, human sludge from a Canadian dump truck with mechanical problems poured onto I-275 in Huron Township, said Robert McCann, press secretary for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The truck couldn't dump the human sludge in a landfill and was traveling to be serviced for its mechanical problems.
"We can't blame it on Canadian trash directly," McCann said. "But we can blame it on the number of trucks we have coming into Michigan."
In fiscal year 2005, Canada dumped 11.8 million cubic yards in Michigan. Canada and other states dispose of 29 percent of the trash in Michigan landfills.
Other states dumping in Michigan include Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin and Rhode Island, McCann said.
"It basically boils down to the fact that it's cheap to do it here," McCann said. "If you make it less economically attractive to do it here, it makes sense that other states and Canada would stop bringing their trash here."
Michigan has the lowest dumping charge in the Great Lakes region, at 21 cents per ton, Boyd said. Other states charge more than $7 per ton.
Republican lawmakers are hesitant to raise trash taxes because it could pass the cost onto Michigan families and businesses, said press secretary Jason Brewer for Speaker of the House Rep. Craig DeRoche, R-Novi.
"(Raising taxes) does nothing to stop trash, it makes it more expensive for everyone," Brewer said.
