From the Ground Up

Winter
2009 Issue

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Community Organizing: Talking to the Speaker on Trash

Ecology Center hand-delivers more than 4,000 letters to Rep. Craig DeRoche

By Brad van Guilder

May/June Issue, 2006

The people of Michigan are fed up with partisan political posturing when it comes to the issue of out-of-state trash piling up in the state’s landfills. The agenda of the Michigan State House of Representatives is controlled by one person: Speaker of the House Craig DeRoche (R-Novi). House Bill 5615 would create a dumping charge to make landfilling more expensive and provide a resource to Michigan municipalities to boost recycling with little net budget impact on those municipalities. However, the bill has been denied a hearing in the Natural Resources, Great Lakes, Land Use and Environment Committee and Rep. DeRoche has refused to allow a vote on the floor of the state House.

Currently, more than 20 states have some form of tipping fee surcharge. Wisconsin charges $3 per ton and it’s $7.25 per ton in Pennsylvania, where trash imports dropped 20% in the first three years of their dumping charge. Michigan charges a mere 21 cents per ton, which is earmarked for administrative costs of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

The Ecology Center recently collected letters from across the state to support a substantial increase in Michigan’s dumping charge. From Feb. 20 to April 1 our door-to-door canvass talked to nearly 10,000 people.

Thanks to the canvass and other efforts around the state, we collected nearly 4,000 letters to Rep. DeRoche calling for a hearing and vote on a dumping charge. On April 20 we met with David Nyberg, legislative aide to Speaker DeRoche and presented the letters, including comments from residents in Rep. DeRoche’s district. We asked the Speaker to write a letter to Rep. Palsrok, chair of the committee, to support a hearing on dumping charge legislation.

State Republicans in the past have said that only the U.S. Congress can act on the trash issue, and since Congress has never taken action on the issue, we also took the opportunity to ask Mr. Nyberg, “What is your back-up plan?” “Lobby Congress harder,” he replied.

We can’t wait for Congress. The trash problem was created by policies in Michigan. We need to solve this problem with action in Michigan.

Take Action

Write to Rep. DeRoche for a
committee hearing and vote:

craigderoche@house.mi.gov

166 Capitol Building
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

FAX: (517) 373-5873

Write to Rep. Palsrok
for a committee hearing:

davidpalsrok@house.mi.gov

S1385 House Office Building
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

FAX: (517) 373-9461

Brad van Guilder is the Ecology Center’s Community Organizer. You may contact Brad at bradvg@ecocenter.org or(734) 663-2400, ext. 114.

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