Michigan: The Waste and Landfill State

Michigan is the third largest trash importer in the nation, ranking behind Virginia and Pennsylvania. While the majority of imported trash comes from Canada, Michigan also receives waste from all neighboring states and as far as New York.

Michigan has become a dumping ground in the midwest.. Michigan earned this title in response to its landfill surplus and inexpensive dumping charges. Michigan charges $10 per ton of trash, whereas states like New York charge as much as $40. Landfills are a serious environmental threat and reducing the number of landfills will be a large challenge towards Michigan's government officials.

The environment of the Great Lakes region is blessed with huge forests and wilderness areas, rich agricultural land, hundreds of tributaries and thousands of smaller lakes, and extensive mineral deposits. The region's glacial history and the tremendous influence of the lakes themselves create unique conditions that support a wealth of biological diversity, including more than 130 rare species and ecosystems.

The environment supports a world-class fishery and a variety of wildlife, such as white-tailed deer, beaver, muskrat, weasel, fox, black bear, bobcat, moose and other fur bearing animals. Bird populations thrive on the various terrains, some migrating south in the winter, others making permanent homes. An estimated 180 species of fish are native to the Great Lakes, including small- and large-mouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, lake herring, whitefish, walleye and lake trout. Rare species making their home in the Great Lakes region include the world's last known population of the white catspaw pearly mussel, the copper redhorse fish and the Kirtland's warbler.

The region's sand dunes, coastal marshes, rocky shorelines, lake-plain prairies, savannas, forests, fens, wetlands and other landscapes contain features that are either unique or best represented within the Great Lakes basin. For example, the world's largest freshwater dunes line the shores of Lake Michigan.