LANSING – A Canadian trash truck overturned on I-94 in St. Clair County earlier today and shut down part of the freeway during the morning rush hour, prompting State Representative Mike Simpson (D-Liberty Township) to blast the Republican leadership in the Senate for not acting on tough measures that would fight the flood of out-of-state and Canadian garbage.
"Canada and other states dump their garbage here because we're dirt cheap," Simpson said. "Raising the dumping charge evens the playing field. We cannot let other states trash Michigan for mere pennies. Our state's land, air and water are too precious to allow Michigan to continue to be the Great Waste State."
This spring, the House passed legislation that bans new landfills, strictly limits the expansion of existing landfills until 2012, and attacks the economics of the trash trade by 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. So far, the legislation has languished in the Senate.
The Detroit Free Press reported today that a Canadian trash truck overturned on I-94 southeast of Port Huron, and that it was not clear how long it would take emergency crews to clean up and reopen the highway.
"We must end the trashing of Michigan and focus on protecting our communities and attracting investment to our state," Simpson said. "We can't wait any longer to enact this tough anti-trash plan."
This is not the first time that Canadian trash trucks have caused problems, threatening public safety and draining 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, a Canadian truck dumped human sludge in downtown Flat Rock in Wayne County.