Out of State Waste – Key Facts
Regional management of waste materials provides substantial environmental, economic and social benefits.
• Strict environmental regulations have resulted in the replacement of municipal dumps with regional sites that use state-of-the-art technologies, including synthetic liners, groundwater and gas monitoring, and leachate and landfill gas collection systems. Because they are costlier and larger, their number is limited. Michigan has 53.
• Federal, state and Canadian officials promote regional facilities to achieve environmentally safe solid waste disposal. As a result of regional landfills, nearly every state exports and imports solid waste.
• Regional landfills in Michigan, in addition to providing secure, low-cost disposal, offer a significant financial boost to local communities and economies through host fees, jobs, property taxes, surcharges and the purchase of goods and services.
• Michigan recycling businesses depend on open borders to export thousands of tons of old newsprint (ONP) and other recyclable fiber to paper mills in Canada. The state’s “E-Scrap” industry (electronic scrap, computers, circuit boards etc.) relies on access to Canada, which is home to the only precious metals smelter handling this material.
Michigan’s landfill disposal capacity is not threatened, even with imports.
• According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Canadian waste volumes are received at only a few of the state’s 53 Type II landfills. Canadian waste does not threaten Michigan’s landfill capacity.
• Only a few Michigan landfills receive Canadian waste: Pine Tree Acres landfill in Macomb County, Carleton Farms in western Wayne County and Richfield landfill in Genesee County. These landfill operators estimate capacity to be approximately 35 years, even if the current volume of Canadian waste were to continue (Canadian waste disposal at these sites peaked between 2004 and 2005 and has remained stable or declined.
• Michigan Waste Industries Association, which is comprised of landfill and waste haulers across the state, also estimate capacity to be more than 35 years.
• The waste industry is investing in research and state-of-the-art technologies designed to maintain the industry’s long-standing tradition of dealing with society’s waste management. This includes developing more efficient, effective and environmentally protective means of disposing of waste. The industry is also engaged with policymakers, industry and citizens to encourage greater recycling.
The receipt of Canadian waste by a few Michigan landfills is a temporary experience, as Ontario governments already are implementing a plan for the long- term management of their solid waste.
• Michigan has no plan to end hazardous waste or recycling material shipments to Canada. Moving forward jointly to maximize the use and avoid the duplication of waste facilities while cooperatively developing regional waste management solutions should be the focus of a dialogue between Michigan and Ontario.
Environmental policy, free commerce, NAFTA and the U.S. Constitution support the movement of waste to Michigan and Canada.
• Solid waste moves across the U.S-Canadian border, as it does across nearly every state line in the U.S., because it is an article of commerce. Michigan ships hazardous waste, recyclable material and electronic scrap to Canada. In the U.S., environmental policy favors fewer regional facilities. Additionally, a series of Supreme Court decisions cite the Constitution’s Commerce Clause protection of interstate movement of waste, and NAFTA provides for inter-country movement.
