Tagged: trash

When you’re driving around southeast Michigan, you might happen to see three women on the side of the road. They’re all moms, but their kids are grown up. They work part time. They fill their free time by picking up trash... for fun.

"This is a beautiful area, and yet we have piles of garbage there."

Melinda Fons is with her friends Moy Garretson and Karen Rooke in suburban Detroit.

Karen: "Wagons roll!"

They get plastic grabbers and garbage bags out of the trunk. And they head into a little wooded patch next to a busy two-lane road.

Karen Rooke starts on the edges.

"I’ve got some cups, a newspaper and a plastic bag. And a credit card... ooh this is good. I’ll take that to the police."

The three women crawl under trees and into bushes to get the trash. There’s a pile of Styrofoam peanuts, empty rum bottles, a tire... and two more credit cards.

Karen: "I picked up 20 vodka bottles once and Listerine. I think it’s the kids that go drink down there. It’s just a quiet road, and have the Listerine so their parents – they think - don’t know. We were young once too!"

The state Legislature could enact new restrictions soon on the types of household waste that can be burned in barrels and pits.

Household waste now includes a lot more toxic materials – such as computer parts, rubber, plastic, and treated wood. A rule proposed last year would have banned outdoor burning in communities that don’t have local trash-burning ordinances.

Critics say that goes too far – especially in small towns and rural areas, where people have long burned their trash in burn barrels.

“They have to have the ability to burn their trash and dispose of it properly and that’s what we’ve done for years and years,” said Kenneth Kurtz (R-Coldwater).

The legislation would ban materials including rubber, plastic, and treated wood. Environmental groups don’t think that goes far enough.

“Burning is unnecessary. Burning is a bad idea,” said Hugh McDiarmid of the Michigan Environmental Council. “We acknowledge that it’s a practice that’s gone on, that’s been very convenient for people for a long time, so we welcome the step in the right direction this legislation is and hope that it can be stronger in the future.”

McDiarmid says improved recycling programs would be a better alternative to burning trash.

The city of Lansing is expanding a  pilot recycling program. The ‘single stream’ recycling program means businesses and individuals don’t  have to separate bottles, newspapers and other recyclables. 

Chad Gamble is Lansing’s Public Works director. He says making recycling easier means more things will be recycled, and the more that's recycled the less the program costs the city.  

“There are several cities statewide that are doing ‘single stream’ collection in varying degrees.  But I think we are truly one of the leaders…branching out into the commercial recycling…the cart (residential) recycling for families and the public recycling.  And so, I’m very excited to pilot these programs." 

Gamble says city leaders are evaluating the ‘single stream’ recycling program and may eventually expand it to the entire city.

Detroit is home to one of the world’s largest incinerators. That facility burns around 800,000 tons of trash every year.

The issue has sparked passionate conflict in Detroit for more than 20 years. And a recent public hearing—on whether to give the incinerator’s new owners tax credits—showed that conflict is just as intense as ever.

Last year state officials approved a ban on burning trash starting April 1st, 2011.  But with the date drawing near, it appears backyard burning appears safe, at least legally, for now.