Dan Coats: “It is all about garbage. It is all about municipal solid waste, which is a diplomatic term for garbage, the stuff that…”

“It is all about garbage. It is all about municipal solid waste, which is a diplomatic term for garbage, the stuff that each of us throws out every day from our kitchen--puts in a plastic bag, puts out at the curb once or twice a week, picked up by a local truck and taken to what we think is a local landfill nearby. Unfortunately, the State I come from, Indiana, has become the local landfill for a number of States that do not have enough landfill capacity or find it cheaper to load it on a train, load it on a truck, send it overnight down our Nation's railways or highways, and drop it off in the State of Indiana. Over the past several years, we have been the recipient of millions upon millions upon millions of tons of out-of-State trash without any ability as a State to put reasonable restraints and restrictions on receipt of that out-of-State trash in order to manage our environment and manage our own destiny in terms of how we dispose of this municipal solid waste.”