Is there a dump on Mackinac Island? If not, what do they do with their garbage? Are there garbage trucks?
Dirty Jobs did an episode on Mackinac Island. From what I remember, they compost a lot of food there, I forget what they did with the other refuse. They use horse and buggy to haul it around. I know there’s at least a garbage service there, not sure where it goes after that.
It’s also screwy they pronounce it Mackinaw. WTF French people!
http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/001992.html
Mackinac Island started collecting source separated organics in 1992. The island is a historical community that prohibits motor vehicles, so horse-drawn trailers are used to collect wastes. There are just over 500 year-round residents, but during peak tourist season, about 15,000 visitors come to the island. “In the summer months, we collect organics 7 days per week, but this tails off to once a week in the winter months,” says Bruce Zimmerman, Director of Public Works on Mackinac Island. “We don’t use a scale for measuring the waste, but rather charge per bag, and extrapolate that number for estimated tonnage and cubic yard values.”
In 2008, about 635 tons of food waste were collected, as well as 583 tons of yard waste. Residents are charged $3/bag for garbage, but only $1.50/bag for organics. “At the composting facility, residential organics bags are opened and hand-sorted for contaminants,” says Paul Wandrie, who manages the facility. “The organics then travel via conveyor to a picking station, pass under a magnet for metal removal, and enter a shredder. We mix the shredded waste with manure, yard trimmings and commercial food waste using a front-end loader, and then compost it in aerated concrete bays.” All of the finished compost is used on the island.
This is a painting
MikeS
October 27, 2011, 12:25pm
5
As of 2009:
Every dumpster of trash shipped to a landfill on the mainland costs $1,100, so sorting materials that can be recycled or composted is the job of every resident and business.
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Citizens here are encouraged to separate organic material from their trash to reduce the volume of garbage that has to be shipped to the mainland. The incentive is the cost to dispose of their waste. A garbage bag filled with compostable waste costs only $1.50, whereas a bag designated for the landfill costs $3. Materials that can be recycled can be disposed of free.
Mackinac Island Service Company, a commercial dray service, picks up the bags and recyclables and delivers them to the city’s Solid Waste Handling Facility just off British Landing Road, near the center of the Island. The Service Company charges customers for the service, and, in turn, pays a tipping fee to the Department of Public Works to dump the trash at the facility.
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Because of the porous limestone and danger of water contamination, landfill operations here are no longer allowed, requiring everything that can’t be recycled or composted to be shipped to the mainland.
So basically, an agressive composting program on the island, while trash and (I assume) recyclables get shipped to the mainland.
Last time I was there, one of the ferries (think it’s Shepler’s) was docked right next to one of the garbage boats. Looked like a floating dumpster.