Investing in You

We’ve all seen them – those little pockets of roadside spaces where some people have decided to create a random dumping ground for bulk trash items, such as mattresses and broken furniture. These dumping grounds are not only a blight on the community – they put extra costs on the property owners or municipalities to clean up.

Well, a new law signed by the governor aims to target some of this by not only increasing the fines if caught, but making the violator pay for the cleanup of those spaces.  Public Act 6, also known as HB  4325 when it was in the legislature, will hopefully make people think twice before making a roadside meadow their dumpster.

Under the previous law, litterers faced the following potential penalties:

• If the amount of litter was less than one cubic foot, the fine was up to $800.
• If the litter was more than one cubic foot, but less than three cubic feet, a fine of up to $1,500.
• If the litter was greater than three cubic feet, the fine was up to $2,500 for a first offense, with additional offenses carrying a fine of up to $5,000.

With the new law, the first two penalties were kept, but it gets steeper from there. Under the new law:

• Littering more than three cubic feet but less than 135 cubic feet would be a misdemeanor punishable by a penal fine of up to $2,500, with any subsequent violations increasing the maximum fine by $2,500 each additional time.
• Littering in an amount of 135 cubic feet or more would be a misdemeanor punishable by a penal fine of up to $5,000 for an initial violation, with subsequent violations increasing the maximum fine by $5,000 each additional time.

There is one word in those two new penalties that sticks out – misdemeanor. Littering on each level was previously known as a civil offense, but anything over three cubic feet is now a misdemeanor. This puts more weight on the offense and creates the possibility for higher fines.

So, what’s the big deal? Three cubic feet is a lot of trash, right?

Wrong.

A washing machine capacity averages between 3.5-5.5 cubic feet. So, the amount of litter that would qualify under the new misdemeanor penalties would be less than a load of laundry.

The changes in the law don’t stop there. The state now directs the court, as part of sentencing the misdemeanors, to order the person to clean up their litter and pay for any damage to the property that resulted from it. If the mess was already cleaned up by a local community group or government, the violator may have to pay for it, in addition to or in lieu of their fines.

Finally, the law gives property owners the right to seek damages for the cleanup or other expenses related to the littering. These civil damages would be on top of the criminal fines.

All in all, the new laws aim to reduce the amount of people dumping bulk trash on the side of the road. Hopefully, people will stop and think about which would be more costly – the dumping fees for disposing their bulk items the proper way, or the fines for being caught tossing it out of their vehicle.

But that begs the question – what are you supposed to do with your bulk items, especially since there is no open landfill in Lenawee County? The first step is to check with your trash carrier. Yes, some of them have fines and fees, but the convenience of having it picked up directly from your home could be worth it.

If that doesn’t work out and donating or recycling aren’t options, the closest places to go with your bulk items would be Liberty Landfill in Clarklake (517-787-1177) or the Jefferson Township Transfer Station near Osseo (517-523-3019). The drive and dump fees may be an inconvenience, but doing the right thing not only helps keep the county clean, but it saves you from the risk of hefty fines.