WASHINGTON, (Sept. 8, 2004) — Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry pledged to ban Canadian trash from being hauled across the border into Michigan if he takes over the White House this November.

“It’s time to end Canadian trash dumping in Michigan,” Kerry said in a news release. “[President] George W. Bush has let Michigan become Canada’s landfill.”

The state gets about 180 truckloads of garbage each day from Canada. Most of the trash is shipped by truck from Toronto, which stepped up hauling its to trash to Michigan after its flagship Keele Valley landfill closed last year and a follow-up plan to transport garbage to the Adams Mine in Northern Ontario fell apart.

In the press release, Kerry vowed not to allow further shipments until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins enforcing a 12 year-old treaty that requires Canada to notify the agency for each shipment of waste entering the U.S. for health or environmental reasons.

However the EPA said recently the treaty only covers hazardous waste and that Congress needs to expand the EPA’s authority if it wants to regulate other kinds of trash.

Meanwhile Wilson Logistics, the Toronto-based carrier that transports most of the city’s trash to Michigan, continues its battle with the City of Toronto over their 20-year agreement to haul 1.3 million tonnes of residential trash to the U.S. state.

The company told Today’s Trucking this summer mounting costs associated with U.S. hours-of-service rules is biting severely into the company’s bottom line, and wants the city to rework the contract to reflect those costs.

— with files from Associated Press