GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Governor Rick Snyder Tuesday proposed spending $79 million annually to help renew Michigan’s environment. He also noted that Michigan’s landfills are begin filled up by other states' trash.
State officials tell FOX 17 News the reason for Michigan takes other people’s garbage is that Michigan has lots of landfills and our disposal prices are low compared to other states.
The Michigan Environmental Council based in Lansing says it’s mostly commercial haulers making those trips to dump waste in the mitten.
"About 25 percent of our waste that’s placed in our landfills comes from out of state,” says Chris Kolb at the Michigan Environmental Council, "from Toronto and Ontario and other states mostly to the east of here.”
Governor Snyder says he wants to clean up the state, and he’s proposing the $79 million in annual funding to be used in several ways.
“One is to provide about $45 million a year to remediate and redevelop existing contaminated sites that have been abandoned across the state, about 3,000 of those,” says Kolb.
The rest of the money would be used to increase Michigan’s recycling and to maintain the quality of beaches and state parks.
If the governor’s proposal gets the green light, Michigan could start spending the money as early as fall 2018.
