By Staff
LANSING – Solid waste imported into Michigan made up 31 percent of all waste disposed of in state landfills in Fiscal Year 2006, according to the Report of Solid Waste Landfilled in Michigan released Wednesday by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Michigan imported waste in 2006 from Canada, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Louisiana and Pennsylvania joined the list of waste generators for Michigan landfills in 2006.
A total of 61,877,245 cubic yards of solid waste was disposed in Michigan landfills in FY 2006.
Waste disposed of by Michigan residents decreased by 2,368,509 cubic yards – about 6 percent – to 42,841,713 cubic yards.
However, waste imported from other states and Canada increased 545,212 cubic yards – about 3 percent – to 19,035,532 cubic yards.
The largest source of waste imports into Michigan continues to be from Canada, with total imports of 12,084,907 cubic yards – up 2 percent from FY 2005.
Last August Michigan's U.S. senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, reached an agreement with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment under which Ontario promised to end shipment of all municipally managed solid waste to Michigan by 2010.
This agreement covers approximately 37 percent of the solid waste Canada currently sends to Michigan, according to the DEQ.
DEQ proposed a comprehensive solid waste strategy in 2005 to address solid waste issues that included raising the cost of using Michigan's landfills to provide funding to local communities to increase recycling, expanding the bottle bill to control litter and reduce the amount of recyclable material going to landfills and insuring disposal capacity for waste generated in Michigan while reducing excess capacity attractive to out-of-state waste generators.
Based on capacity used during FY 2006, it is estimated Michigan landfills have approximately 18 years of remaining disposal capacity.
Data released Jan. 31 appears in the 11th annual report prepared by the DEQ.
Submittal of this information to the DEQ is required of all Michigan landfills. Cass County does not have any landfills.
To receive a copy of the annual report, contact the DEQ, Waste and Hazardous Materials Division, Storage Tank and Solid Waste Section, P.O. Box 30241, Lansing, MI 48909-7741; at (517) 241-2924; or download the annual report from the DEQ Web site at www.michigan.gov/deq.
Click on "Waste," "Solid Waste" and under the "Information" tab, click on "Annual Reports of Solid Waste Landfilled" and then on the link for the fiscal year report desired.
DEQ news releases are also available on the department's Internet home page, www.michigan.gov/deq.