LANSING – Canadian trash trucks on their way to Michigan landfills overturned this week in Ontario, prompting State Representative Kate Ebli (D-Monroe) to call on her colleagues from both sides of the aisle to join her in the fight against out-of-state and Canadian trash by getting her anti-trash plan to the Governor's desk.
"These recent incidents remind us, once again, that communities pay the price when massive trucks that haul trash from Canada and other states rumble into Michigan," Ebli said. "My colleagues in the House passed my tough anti-trash plan last year, and I urge my fellow lawmakers to come together and help advance my plan to the Governor's desk. The stakes are high in this fight against trash, because trucks hauling trash from Canada and other states carry everything from medical waste to sewage sludge."
Ebli is the main sponsor of a plan – passed in May 2007 by the House and now awaiting action in the Senate – that bans new landfills and strictly limits the expansion of existing landfills until 2012. In April 2007, the House passed legislation increasing the state's current paltry dumping charge of 21 cents per ton. With a steeper dumping charge, Canada and other states will be forced to dump their trash elsewhere.
This is not the first time that Canadian trash trucks have caused problems, threatening public safety and draining the resources of road and clean-up personnel. In December 2005, a Canadian trash truck traveling westbound on I-69 flipped in Capac, dumping garbage on the highway and closing it for half an hour. In November 2005, a Canadian trash truck struck a car in Huron Township in Wayne County, killing two men. In March 2005, a Canadian truck dumped human sludge in downtown Flat Rock in Wayne County.
Ebli noted that according to the Toledo Blade, a Monroe man was injured on Feb. 19 when his trash truck overturned on northbound I-75, shutting down the highway for several hours.
A report released in January by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) found that imports from states including Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin increased by 2.52 million tons. Trash imported into Michigan from Pennsylvania showed the most dramatic increase – an astounding 771 percent. The amount of trash coming from out-of-state into Carleton Farms doubled between 2006 and 2007.
"The rise in the amount of trash being sent from New England shows those states believe they have a cheap dumping ground here in Michigan," Ebli said. "I look forwarding to my Senate colleagues moving forward on my anti-trash plan so that we can start turning those trash trucks around."