Melissa Maynard was a GOVERNING contributor, working as a project reporter on the Government Performance Project, a project of the Pew Center on the States.
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Trash Talk
Canada and Michigan have long had a bizarre relationship. Michigan sends its teenagers across the border to get trashed (legal drinking age in Ontario: 19), and Canada, perhaps as a sort of tongue-in-cheek thank you, sends back its trash. As many as 400 garbage trucks full a day.
This may soon change. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation that would allow states to restrict countries from dumping trash, as this story from Congressional Quarterly explains. Federal legislation is needed, supporters say, because international trash is an "international commodity."
Ontario has already agreed to stop sending Michigan its municipal waste by 2010, but the sooner the better. Michigan's current situation stinks enough without Canada's crap to worry about.
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Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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