Cleaning up after a party can be bad enough. Imagine being responsible for the waste of another country, plus 12 other states.

That's a lot of trash.

On Monday Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed legislation that would ban out-of-country, specifically Canadian, waste imported into the United States. Before it can go into effect, U.S. Congress must pass legislation to allow Michigan to ban imported trash.

Twenty-nine percent of garbage in Michigan landfills comes from Canada and other states. This is probably due to Michigan's cheap dumping charge, only 21 cents per ton compared with other states that charge $7 per ton.

But the legislation might be just a quick fix to a bigger problem. Regulation of what trash goes where is important, but not as important as how much trash we're producing in the first place.

There currently is not an effective way to control the content of the out-of-country waste brought into Michigan. Inspectors have found illegal materials such as batteries and medical equipment in dump trucks.

Sledding is fun, and some of East Lansing's best hills are made out of trash, but health hazards could become a threat if we continue to decorate our landscape with garbage disguised as friendly mounds. Do we really want to risk future generations of multi-eyed children for fun winter pastimes?

Humans tend to finds ways of coping with changing conditions in order to maintain comfortable lifestyles. Our reliance on oil and the diminishing supply of it is a perfect example. We are finding alternate sources, such as ethanol and solar power, to fuel our cars now that we have to.

Waste management should follow this trend and begin to find alternatives to excessive landfills. Extensive recycling programs would be a great start. Finding ways to reuse products that would otherwise be added to massive amounts of trash could begin to dwindle down our garbage production.

Whether trash is coming from Canada or not, there is still too much. And we need to start discussing ways of preventing more.