OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – If you live in Brown, Outagamie or Winnebago Counties, chances are your trash ends up in the Outagamie County landfill.
In 2003, the three counties partnered to coordinate waste disposal and recycling. Leaders say the agreement has saved taxpayers more than $48 million and has lowered tipping fees, which is a charge to anyone who disposes of waste in a landfill.
“We have some of the lowest tipping fees in the country. Why is that important? Well, you’re paying taxes. You’re having to pay less taxes to take care of your garbage and recyclables than you would elsewhere,” Dean Haen, Brown County Port and Resource Recovery director, said.
In 2019, the state’s average municipal tipping fee was $61 per ton. The Outagamie County landfills’ fee was more than 1.5 times less at $38 per ton, according to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources data.
That Outagamie County landfill will be full by the end of 2022. Next, it’s Brown County’s turn to take care of the trash with a new landfill site in Holland.
“It’s a $20 million dollar effort. That includes not only construction of the site itself, but also acquiring the equipment,” Haen said.
But the amount of trash coming in keeps growing. Haen tells FOX 11 municipalities from Waupaca, Oconto, Kewaunee and other counties also send their waste to the tri-county landfill.
“We’re becoming much more of a regional landfill.”
Taylor Sorenson is the recycling coordinator for Waupaca County.
“It just wasn’t cost effective for a county of our size, both within land and population to open up our own landfill.”
Waupaca County has its own processing and transfer facility — but building more than that, wouldn’t have been a smart investment.
“We would have had to have those tip fees so high that they don’t think that we would have gotten enough customers using the landfill,” Sorenson said.
While Brown County will have a new landfill next year, the tri-counties are also in the process of expanding the Outagamie County landfill.
“Why do you need to have both, why expand the Outagamie County landfill when that new landfill will be there?” FOX 11 asked Outagamie County Recycling & Solid Waste Director Brian Van Straten.
“Our tonnages have increased significantly across the tri-county over the last six years. It was determined, based on the savings we achieved and the potential savings going forward, that running two operations is going to best serve the tri-county region,” Van Straten said.
Some Little Chute community members oppose the expansion.
“The odors happen on a regular basis, we get trash blowing in our yard every time it’s windy, lots of truck traffic noise. Winnebago took their turn, Outagamie’s taking their turn now, and now it’s Brown County’s turn,” Jansen said.
Van Straten says the county is in compliance with state Department of Natural Resource regulations.
“We aggressively manage the landfill gas collection system. As we move forward, we’re in the process of building a new renewable natural gas facility. That’ll even enhance the gas collection even more,” Van Straten said.
But Jansen says that’s not enough.
The DNR held an air permit public hearing for the Outagamie County landfill expansion at the beginning of April. Five residents spoke at the hearing. All were against the DNR issuing a permit.
