Tips for Navigating the Winnebago County Solid Waste Facility

Trying to make your visit to our facility easy and painless?

Here are a few tips from our associates that you see daily!

First - Before you even leave your house, remember to secure your load! Always have any open load you are traveling with covered - Winnebago County General Code 15.51(3) mandates all open loads (trailers and truck beds) must be covered while traveling across any Winnebago County roads. Should you not have a cover, we do provide tarps for a small fee. Just ask your friendly Scale Attendant.

Second – When coming to our facility, always use the Landfill entrance ("Entrance Gate") if you are disposing of material (coming from Jackson St. it will be the second driveway on the right). Our Administrative Office (first driveway on the right coming from Jackson St.) is for deliveries, those meeting with staff, or for general information and NOT needing to dispose of any items. ALL items for disposal should go through our Landfill entrance.

When you turn into the landfill driveway, you will notice 3 large overhead signs directing different types of vehicles to each of our lanes.

Lane 1 (left-hand scale) is for any of our route trucks or other vehicles with authorized badges ONLY. To use this lane, our route trucks must wait for light to turn green to indicate the scale is ready. Unauthorized residents should NEVER attempt to go in this lane.

Lane 2 (middle with no scale) is for any car needing to dispose of any residential or commercial garbage, overflow curbside recycling, or electronics and appliances. These items are either free or have a separate fee and do not need to be weighed on either of our scales. Also, please know ahead of time if your TV screen is less than or greater than 32" diagonal so we know what to charge you. So be sure to stop and see the Scale Attendant each and every time you visit. We like to see our customers! 😊

Lane 3 (right-hand scale by the building) is for any vehicle with trailers, all personal trucks, all vans (including U-Hauls or big box trailers), and all SUVs. All of these customers must come into the scale house to see us! If you happen to have a scale ticket receipt with a previous empty weight highlighted on it, please bring that in with you. This will enable you to pay for your disposal up front and not have to come back to the scale. If you don't have a highlighted ticket and would like one, ask our Scale Attendants. They are happy to help you out for your next visit! If you have an automatic dump trailer, jump down to Transfer Station Instructions for disposal information.

IMPORTANT: If you are using Lane 3 and did not pay up front you will NEED TO COME BACK to reweigh the vehicle.

CUSTOMER CONVENIENCE AREA INSTRUCTIONS

After the Scale Attendant saves your incoming vehicle weight, they will direct you to each disposal station in our customer convenience area that you may need to stop at, depending on the different materials you may have. For residential/commercial garbage loads, you will be directed to any of our dumpsters lining both sides of three disposal ramps for hand disposal of items. You may use any of these ramps and dump in any dumpster for garbage and construction materials – they are all the same.

Remember that household recyclables, yard waste, electronics, freon appliances, non-freon appliances, scrap metal, propane tanks, tires, waste oil/oil filters/oil absorbents, antifreeze, lead acid/rechargeable batteries, and light bulbs MUST be disposed of at their specified location on site. These items should NEVER go in our trash dumpsters. (Refer to the color-coded Convenience Area Map below to familiarize yourself with these other disposal locations). If you aren't sure on an item, stop back to ask the friendly Scale Attendant and they will direct you! When you have finished disposing of your garbage on the ramps, you may continue down the other side of the ramp to other drop-sites on our facility or swing around to exit.

When you have finished dropping off all your items, you will come back to the scale- PLEASE DO NOT come on the scale backwards (the opposite direction that you came in). Our scales are one-way scales ONLY. You will need to pass all 3 lanes and go out the exit gate to your far right. Then come back in line to the third scale to weigh out and come back into the scale building to see your helpful Scale Attendant to pay. We accept any debit or credit card, check, and cash for payment. When you have finished paying for disposal, the Scale Attendant will highlight the empty weight on your ticket receipt so you can bring it in for easier disposal the next time you visit.

TRANSFER STATION INSTRUCTIONS

We send our commercial/garbage trucks and anyone with an automatic dump trailer to use our Transfer Station on the other side of County Road Y. You will need to go out the exit gate and across the street to our Transfer Station building. We do ask that everyone wears their safety vest into the scale office prior to being sent to use our Transfer Station. We want to ensure the safety of our customers – and we like the bright colors too! If you do not have a safety vest or forget yours, we do sell them for a small fee. Your friendly Scale Attendants will be happy to help you with that as well!

If you have a load of garbage, you will pull halfway around the building to dump in the four trash bays facing Jackson St. (E1-E4). If you have single-stream recycling, you will continue fully around the building to the three recycling bays facing County Road Y. (N1-N3). The loader operators over there will help direct you into the appropriate bay.

Don't forget to come back to the scale if you still need to pay, otherwise once you're done dumping you're good to go – have a great day!

Should you have any questions feel free to call us at (920) 232-1800, our staff is always ready and happy to help you with all of your recycling and disposal needs!