In the absurdity of Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, one item stands out as making sense. He has put a tariff on Canadian garbage.

You probably didn’t know that we exported garbage to the US. Turns out is is a fair sized business.

And what do Americans do with Canadian garbage? They bury it in their landfills. Or burn it.

You would think Americans would have enough garbage of their own, but landfills are a business after all. Turns out to be cheaper for several Canadian municipalities to send their trash south instead of dealing with it themselves. American landfills have lower fees.

My parents taught me to be responsible for my own mess. So this is one tariff that makes sense to me. Canada has lots of land; maybe we should dispose of our garbage here.

I am left wondering though if the tariffs will hurt the landfill business in the US. Do the operators need Canadian garbage to make ends meet? Will they suffer hardship because they have to pay more for garbage?

When I think of contentious issues in Canada-US trade I think about softwood lumber an irritant for decades), steel, auto parts, dairy products and fossil fuels. Garbage was never on my radar.

Many of Trump’s tariffs defy logic and make no economic sense for Americans. I’m somewhat sympathetic though to the idea of the garbage tariffs, even if they do hurt American businesses.

We really should clean up our own mess. Now if only Americans would do the same for theirs