What started as a controversial plan to turn a fallow citrus grove in eastern Charlotte County into a regional landfill has turned into a foul argument that has succeeded in pitting longtime friends and business partners against one another.

In the latest installment of the Calusa Green debate, the Southwest Rural Landowners Association and the Florida Rural Landowners Association over the weekend mailed more than 30,000 oversized postcards to residents across Punta Gorda and neighborhoods near the Fort Myers home of local entrepreneur Bruce Laishley. The cards urged people to oppose the landfill and not to do business with some two-dozen companies Laishley and his partners are affiliated with.