By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - There is a new weapon to end what the Berrien County Democrats believe to be Republican stonewalling on anti-trash legislation.
On Monday afternoon in Niles, the Democrats brought out the Trash-O-Meter, which is a specially designed timepiece to measure the amount of trash entering Michigan from other states and Canada.
According to Edie Minks, currently five bills have been introduced to the Michigan legislature by the Democrats and the the Republicans are making no attempt to do anything with them.
The Trash-O-Meter is modeled after the national debt clock in New York City. It measures in real time the amount of trash entering Michigan by extrapolating from 2004 figures by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
According to the DEQ, Berrien County received more than 1.23 million tons of garbage from Indiana and Illinois in 2004, a 50,000 ton increase from 2003.
Haller added that many Republican members of the legislature have dismissed imported trash as a "perceived problem" and it's time they do something about this problem.
Edie Minks added, by raising the current dumping charge the amount of trash brought into Michigan would decrease just as it has in Pennsylvania, where dumping charges were raised and trash imports were cut by 14 percent.
To track the amount of garbage coming into Michigan from other states and Canada go to www.trash-o-meter.com