Storm Debris Dumpsters in Janesville and Rock County

Two kinds of debris, two destinations

After a summer storm there are limbs across the yard, shingles in the gutter and fence panels flat on the lawn; after an ice storm it is mostly wood. The thing to know before you load anything is that Wisconsin has banned yard waste from every landfill in the state since 3 January 1993 (Wis. Stat. 287.07(2)), and the Janesville landfill refuses it in a mixed load. So storm brush does not go in the container with the shingles. The brush goes to a municipal brush site or a brush pickup, and the mixed storm debris — roofing, fence, siding, gutters, wet drywall and carpet from a leak — goes in the roll-off. Keep them apart and both halves are simple.

Where the brush goes — every site on our run

Every town we serve runs a brush program, and most restrict it to residents and refuse anything a contractor cut:

• Janesville: the Compost Site off Black Bridge Road east of Highway 51, Monday to Friday 8 am to 7 pm and Saturday 8 am to 1 pm in season — grass and leaves free for residents with ID, brush and stumps at $6 a cubic yard for residents and $8 for non-residents. Curbside bundled brush is collected only in the two yard-waste weeks, 4 to 8 May and 30 November to 4 December 2026.
• Lake Geneva: the Street Department yard at 1065 Carey Street, residents only with a utility bill and licence; curbside brush pickup only in the spring and fall windows, and "hired contractors must haul away their own tree and leaf debris."
• Elkhorn: the compost site at 401 East Centralia Street, free, city residents only, 1 April to the Sunday after Thanksgiving — "commercial contractors are prohibited."
• Stoughton: the Yard Waste Site at 1101 Collins Road, 4 April to 24 November 2026, with a $25-a-year resident sticker ($30 non-resident); it "may not be used by commercial contractors" and refuses construction timber and decking.
• Oregon: the drop-off site at 91 North Perry Parkway, village residents only — "private contractors are prohibited from using this site."
• Monroe: the yard-waste site at 1064 5th Avenue, 13 April to 30 October 2026, Monday to Friday 6 am to 6 pm, free — "only City residents may use it, and contractors are not allowed."
• Brodhead: the compost site at 1500 11th Street, from 1 April, seven days a week 6:30 am to 7 pm, residential use only; brush from private tree removal is not picked up.
• Fort Atkinson: the compost site at the east end of Bark River Drive, April to early December, for brush under 6 inches; it refuses stumps, construction debris and commercial landscape waste.
• The villages: Clinton's site at 100 Scot Drive, Orfordville's on West Brodhead Street, Footville's at 280 North Gilbert Street, Evansville's drop site at 465 Water Street and Edgerton's at Fassett Cemetery are all residents-only brush and yard-waste sites.

The pattern is plain: if you cut it yourself and you live there, the town will take it. If a tree crew cut it, the crew needs a brush-only container that goes to a compost facility, not the landfill — the Dane County landfill takes clean brush at $40 a ton for Stoughton and Oregon loads; for everyone else the Janesville Clean Fill yard at $6 to $8 a cubic yard is the stop.

What the roll-off takes that the curb does not

Everything that is not brush, in one go: shingles and underlayment from a tear-off, fence panels and posts, siding, gutters, screen panels, patio furniture, and the wet drywall, carpet and insulation from a roof leak or a flooded basement. None of the town programs take any of it: Janesville has no bulky pickup at all, Elkhorn and Whitewater bar "roofing materials" at the curb by ordinance, and Fort Atkinson's bulk service takes "no loose construction materials." A 20 yard on the driveway clears a fence line and a roof in a day.

One Janesville rule shapes a storm roof job: the City landfill has refused asphalt shingles since 2012, so a tear-off gets a container of its own that we route to a facility licensed for shingles. Tell us it is a roof when you book and we plan it that way from the start.

Sizing storm cleanup

Fence panels, siding and gutters are bulky and light — a 15 or 20 yard is the usual call. Roofing is heavy: a 20 covers a single-layer tear-off on most houses, and a double layer wants a 30 for the weight allowance. Water damage — wet drywall, carpet and insulation — is heavier than it looks and goes in a 20 with an eye on the tonnage. If the job mixes a roof and a fence line, say so and we size for the weight of the shingles. The sizing guide has the numbers.

How fast we can get there

Call early the morning after and in Janesville, Beloit, Milton, Edgerton and the Rock County villages we can usually have a container on the driveway that afternoon. The Walworth, Jefferson, Dane and Green County towns are usually next morning. In the week after a big hailstorm, when every roofer in the county is calling, we tell you honestly where you are in the queue. Containers are staged at the yard on Adel Street in Janesville, not ordered from somewhere else.

Insurance, contractors and the town rules

Photograph everything before it goes in the container — your insurer will want it. If a roofer or tree crew is doing the work, the debris is theirs under most town codes: Lake Geneva's 58-45 says "building contractors, landscapers and arborists are responsible for removal of any debris resulting from their work," and Delavan's §8-3-26(b)(3) says the same. Keep the container on your own driveway. If it has to go in a Janesville street, the City Dumpster Permit applies — two weeks maximum, barricade and flashing light — and it requires the container off the public way during a snow emergency until plowing is done, which matters after an ice storm. In Oregon, trucks hauling to and from a job site may run only between 7 am and 7 pm (§9.07(3)).

Before the next one

Trim the limbs over the roof, anchor the trampoline, and know your town's brush-site hours before you need them. Paint and chemicals that a flooded garage turns up are a Rock County Clean Sweep matter (13 June and 29 August 2026, 608-757-5588), not a container matter. And if you are mid-renovation when a storm warning comes, call us to collect an empty container rather than leave it to fill with water.