Toronto tries to appease irate Michigan on trash
Date: 19-Feb-03
Country: CANADA
Author: Amran Abocar
Canada's largest city, which has shipped some trash to the U.S. state for several years, has become a flash point for angry Michigan residents, fed up with rising imported trash.
Last December, Toronto began sending all its waste to Michigan - about 125 trucks a day of household, school and restaurant garbage - when an Ontario landfill closed.
The sudden surge in trash, coupled with a new governor and legislature in Michigan, has put the spotlight on Toronto.
"Canada is the No. 1 importer into Michigan and ideally that's who we would want to target in our campaign," said Jeff Surfus, a Michigan environmentalist and director of NO WASTE.
Toronto accounts for a quarter of the roughly 4 million tonnes of external trash shipped to Michigan each year.
The garbage uproar has left Toronto with a major headache on its hands as it tries to appease not only Michigan but the mayors of southern Ontario towns who don't want truck-loads of refuse rumbling down nearby highways.
It has also stung the city which feels unfairly singled out given Michigan's status as the third biggest U.S. importer of garbage after Virginia and Pennsylvania
Torontonians are also quick to note Michigan has a deal with Ontario to ship hazardous waste to Canada for disposal.
"The waste from Canada causes more psychological concern than waste from the United States," said Geoff Rathbone, a director in Toronto's solid waste management department.
"There's certainly the perception that Canada has vast open spaces and why can't you find a home for your own material."
Rathbone said C$150 million has been spent trying to find alternate locations in Ontario to no avail.
Two years ago, Toronto scotched plans to send its garbage to an abandoned mine in northern Ontario after environmental groups warned the site would pollute area lakes and rivers.
At the time, the city unveiled an ambitious 10-year plan to divert all its trash from landfills to recycling programs by 2010. Until then, Michigan was to have been a stop gap.
"All concerned should be aware of the determined effort being made by Toronto to reduce our waste," city councilor Brad Duguid, who traveled to Michigan this week, said.
MICHIGAN 'SICK AND TIRED' OF TRASH
But anti-trash campaigners in Michigan want the deliveries to stop immediately.
Last week, a coalition of environmental and civic groups gathered at a border crossing to launch the 'Don't Trash Michigan' campaign. The group proposes introducing a surcharge to make Michigan less attractive as a dump site.
Such campaigns - as well as a vow by Michigan's governor to end its status as "America's dumping ground" - has a nervous Toronto ever more focused on finding new places to park its trash.
"We're aggressively working on waste diversion plans in Toronto," City Hall's Rathbone said. "We don't intend for our shipments to Michigan to be a forever thing."
U.S. commerce rules means Michigan cannot just ban trash shipments without permission from the U.S. Congress.
Mike Garfield, director of the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor which is leading the Michigan anti-trash campaign, said Canada should not take the backlash personally.
"In Michigan, the trash from Toronto is a symbol of our problems and that's why a lot of anger is being directed toward it," he said.
"People in Michigan are sick and tired of being used as a dumping ground for the entire Great Lakes region."
Earlier this month a Michigan-bound garbage truck was stopped after U.S. guards noticed it was dripping blood.
The truck, which was illegally taking medical waste to a Detroit area landfill, was turned back. Since October, about seven trucks have been turned back after equipment detected radioactive material in the waste, city officials said.
Toronto officials say garbage is screened before it is shipped to ensure no hazardous material is sent off.
But household items like batteries, old fluorescent lights and dressing from canc
