There are currently 2,635 current and projected landfills in the United States. While some environmentalists might say that’s too much trash from a country that has had intermittent success in recycling, others believe the United States may never run out of room for landfills. But that doesn’t mean some state government officials aren’t concerned when trash arrives from out of state or, in Michigan’s case, Canada.
“I know that a lot of people think we’re running out of space, and that may be true in some areas, but for the most part, when you run out of landfill space, you just build another one,” said Dr. Timothy Townsend, a Florida State University professor of environmental engineering.
“To my knowledge, there’s plenty of space in the near term and sufficient capacity in the long term in places like New York City and such where the waste could end up going to Ohio or even South Carolina and Georgia,” he said to The Epoch Times.
However, the portability of that trash has some states concerned about the need for a growing landfill capacity, such as Michigan, which has been trying to discourage Canadian companies in nearby Ontario from dumping in the state for several years.
Though the U.S. landfill capacity is currently manageable, Ontario is in crisis mode. In the past year, several large Ontario cities have run out of waste space, which has heightened the need to send garbage to smaller rural towns and even indigenous communities in addition to New York State and Michigan.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2021 data showed Michigan’s landfills held more than 685 million tons of “waste in place,” totaling 68.3 tons of trash for the state’s approximately 10.3 million residents. That rate per resident is the highest in the country, according to a report from IT Asset Management Group.
Michigan Trash Tax Plan Shuttered
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer believes that the state’s low landfill fees have made it an easy target for trash from other states and Canada. To try and rectify that, she proposed in her fiscal year 2025 budget an increased fee she believed may not only deter out-of-state trash but also raise some extra money for the state.
The governor’s plan would seek to raise $80 million in new revenue by increasing the tipping fee, a tax paid by landfill owners, from $0.36 to $5 a ton to “bring Michigan in line” with regional averages.
While environmental groups like The Sierra Club hailed Governor Whitmer’s proposal as a means of controlling landfill pollution, opponents from both sides of the political aisle say the new fee is basically a tax hike that could eventually raise costs for residents and businesses.
“While it sounds like a positive narrative to talk about trying to address out-of-state trash, the reality is that, yes, we received trash from border states and Canada, but our studies show that represents only 25 percent of the money that will be paid out” with the increase in the tipping fees, Michigan Chamber of Commerce Director of Environmental and Energy Affairs Michael Alaimo said to The Epoch Times. “On the other hand, 75 percent comes from Michigan businesses, and she’s basically talking about a tax increase for those folks. It’s a significant fee.”
State Rep. Rachel Hood (D-Grand Rapids) told Bridge Michigan the proposed increase was “a little bit embarrassing.”
Michigan House budget subcommittees have decided to pass on the governor’s landfill fee, but Mr. Alaimo is concerned that the decision may only be temporary.
“I think that was good, and while I appreciate the legislature for not pushing it through, unfortunately, they kept a placeholder for it that I view as a problem. We will continue to push against it, and we’re hopeful it won’t make it into the final budget,” he said.
“It’s semantics at best to say this is a fee increase as opposed to a tax increase. It meets the litmus test for a tax because it’s not voluntary, and you can’t escape it.”
Different Kinds of Waste
Landfills are a mixed bag depending on where the trash is coming from and its composition. While states like Michigan and its auto and manufacturing industries deposit tons of waste associated with their production, the more familiar national category of landfills contains a lot of food waste.According to the EPA, more than a third of the food produced in the United States is never consumed, most of which eventually end up in landfills. Environmentalists claim that food generates tons of methane, affecting climate change.
To Dr. Townsend, it’s the methane, not the amount of trash in landfills, that most concerns him. “We have regulations in place at the federal level and adopted by the states to try and contain the methane associated with landfills. Groundwater contamination can also occur if not managed very well, but these days, gas emissions are a bigger issue from the perspective of both methane and greenhouse gases. That is one of the bigger challenges at the federal level. There’s a lot more methane leaving landfills than they thought.”
