The Berrien County Board of Commissioners has been briefed on an effort between Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties to form a united Materials Management Plan covering the disposal of trash in the region.
Speaking to commissioners Thursday, Community Development Director Dan Fette said a 2022 change in state law put the responsibility for waste management on counties. Since each individual county doesn’t have the resources to go it alone, the three-county partnership is forming.
Fette said this will be complicated.
“If the material management plan says, for example, we want 20% of all solid waste in this Tri-County region diverted for recycling purposes, we will probably have to inspect that and enforce that,” Fette said. “And no one really knows what that’s going to look like and how it’s going to be paid for.”
Fette said there are many unknowns at this point.
“This is a long three-year process. We’re just at the beginning of it, but the effort right now is to set the thing up so that the counties have a formal agreement in place and have a process to get this planning committee put together so that we can then turn responsibilities over to this Tri-County Planning Committee and let them help manage the creation of this plan so we don’t have to do it directly.”
Fortunately, Fette said the state is providing money for this program.
The three counties are enlisting the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission to create the actual plan. He said within the next few months, the planning commission will get to work.
