The state's solid waste report for 2024 says Michigan only has 21 years left before its current landfills are full.
That's lending urgency to a state-wide effort to get individuals, businesses and cities to recycle more.
Daniel Schoonmaker is Executive Director of the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum.
He says organic matter - primarily food waste - is the biggest contributor to landfills right now.
"We're throwing away organic material that could be valuable to our agriculture and natural resources, while we're also producing methane that is impacting the environment and climate in our state," Schoonmaker said.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
Schoonmaker says restaurants, municipalities, and individuals all have a role to play in getting food waste to a compost site instead of a dump.
He says another big contributor to landfills is cardboard. Large businesses generally recycle cardboard, but not all small and medium-sized businesses do. He'd like to see more of those businesses start recycling all the cardboard boxes that their office supplies and other materials arrive in, instead of throwing them out.
Schoonmaker says individuals have a big role to play, both in terms of advocacy and behavior. Residents can use their city's curbside recycling program, and urge their city leaders to expand it to take more types of materials — or lobby them to start a program if there isn't one. And they can try to avoid single use plastic items, and avoid buying things that can't be put to another use or recycled at the end of their lifespan.
"We don't have to worry about how to manage waste that we never create," he said.
Counties are also being enrolled in the effort. State law now requires material management plans for landfills to include recycling.
