The Michigan Waste Regulations (R 324.11501) have been updated, requiring every county to establish a Material Management Planning (MMP) committee. These committees are responsible for identifying strategies to improve waste recycling to meet statewide recycling goals, including the need for a new landfill.
The Washtenaw County MMP committee will be the primary decision maker in deciding whether a new landfill will be built on the site. Washtenaw County (home of the Arbor Hills Landfill) recently named the members of their MMP committee. Northville Township Trustee Scott Frush was named a voting member, and The Conservancy Initiative Vice President David Drinan was named a non-voting member.
The Washtenaw County MMP committee is scheduled to begin meeting in November and will likely meet monthly for up to 3 years. All meetings of the MMP committee will be open to the public and will include a chance for the public to make comments.
The Arbor Hills Landfill only has five years of capacity left in its current footprint. Arbor Hills and Salem Township have publicly announced their plans to seek approval for a new landfill on the property just north of the existing one. The Conservancy Initiative is discussing with Northville Township leadership to create effective plans to oppose the new landfill. We anticipate the following actions will be taken.
A community Town Hall will be held to discuss opposing the new landfill. The time and location of the Town Hall will be announced shortly.
Residents will be encouraged to contact their elected officials to make sure their opinion is known. We will provide information to help with these contacts.
We will provide factual information for use when making public comments.
Fundraising will be necessary for mailers and social media advertising.
We would like to use community HOAs to spread awareness.
We encourage Northville Township residents to show up at the MMP committee meetings and respectfully make comments. This will be difficult as we expect the sessions to be held during working hours. The meetings will be long, and comments will be limited to only a few minutes. The first meeting of the MMP committee will be held on November 14th at 10 AM at the Washtenaw County Learning Resource Center (4135 Washtenaw Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 (mark your calendar). We will have more information to share in the coming weeks.
If you want to help, especially if you have any skills in social media advertising or campaign mailer development, please contact a member of The Conservancy Initiative's board of directors. To help us fight a new landfill in our backyards, please consider contributing to The Conservancy Initiative <CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE>. Funds will be used for targeted marketing of our message online and through mailers.
As more information becomes available we will share it through our website.