Should Michigan Be Accepting Trash From Other States?

Michigan has plenty of trash created by residents and businesses, with all the wildlife the state has, should the state be accepting trash from other states and Canada?

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I Thought Michigan Handled its Trash Only

I grew up in Michigan and I have carried my share of trash out to the curb. I have always been under the impression that my trash went to a local dump in my county and that all other counties operated the same way. I recently found out that I am only partially right about that.

The state of Michigan will accept trash from other states and even Canada based on a tipping fee. What is a tipping fee?

If a trash hauler from another state or Canada wants to dump their load in one of Michigan's landfills, they have to pay a tipping fee of 36 cents per ton. I didn't know that trash was big business and Michigan's landfills were open to trash from outside the state.

The real kicker is, that Michigan charges only 36 cents per ton while surrounding states charge on average $5.30 for their tipping fees. Where would you take your trash if you had to haul it to the lowest bidder? I don't believe trash should be crossing our Michigan borders for no amount of money. We have one of the most beautiful states in the country and have plenty of trash to deal with and do not need the trash of surrounding states and our neighbors in Canada.

Michigan Looking at Raising the State's Tipping Fee But Is That Enough?

According to FOX 17, the state of Michigan is looking at slowing out-of-state trash and looking to raise the state's tipping fee to $5 per ton seeing how 25% of the state's trash is coming from outside its border.

Increasing the tipping fee would bring Michigan $80 million to be used for cleaning up contaminated sites around the state. I will say that is a great thing to do with the revenue seeing how there are 26,000 known contaminated locations across the state.

Alternative Solution for Out-of-State Trash

I would rather see the state raise the tipping fee at a much higher rate than $5 per ton. This may slow the trash flow a little but if you want to get rid of 25% of our state's trash coming from surrounding states and Canada, raising the tipping fee to $25 per ton would slow it drastically if not eliminating it.