What Can and Can't Go in a Dumpster in Wisconsin

Yes — load it

• Household junk and furniture: sofas, mattresses, tables, boxes, toys, clothing.
• Construction and renovation debris: wood, drywall, plaster, flooring, siding, cabinets, doors, windows, fixtures.
• Fence panels, deck boards and treated lumber — in the mixed box, not the clean-fill one.
• Metal and plastic.
• Concrete, brick, block and tile — in a 10 yard of their own, loaded level, bound for the Clean Fill Facility.
• Roofing shingles — in a box of their own, because the Janesville landfill refuses them; we route it to a facility licensed for shingles.
• Washers, dryers, stoves, dishwashers and water heaters — tell us they are in the load; they are handled at the landfill's recycling area at no charge.

The Wisconsin landfill bans

Wisconsin Statute 287.07 bans a list of materials from every landfill in the state, and since 1 July 2011 it has also been illegal to put the recyclables on that list into a container headed for one. The dates matter because they explain why every town we serve runs a brush program and a recycling cart:

A microwave is allowed only with the capacitor removed. The DNR's plain-English list adds that foam polystyrene and #3 to #7 plastics are banned on paper but currently allowed, and that brush under six inches in diameter counts as yard waste.

What the Janesville landfill adds

The Janesville Sanitary Landfill at 525 Black Bridge Road is where every Rock County load tips, and it refuses more than the state does. By ordinance 30-37(a)(10) it has refused asphalt shingles since 1 July 2012. It also refuses liquid wastes, concrete including reinforced concrete, asphalt, yard waste, and recyclables including cardboard, and "the City may refuse any load." Special wastes — asbestos, barrels, contaminated soil, industrial process waste — are accepted only with prior approval from the Solid Waste Manager (608-755-3110). Every load must be enclosed or tarped (ordinance 30-43), with forfeitures of $100 to $1,000 a day.

Concrete, asphalt, brick and clean lumber go next door to the Clean Fill Facility at $6 a cubic yard for Janesville residents and $8 for everyone else. The landfill's own 2026 fee sheet prices the things it pulls out at its recycling areas: air conditioners, dehumidifiers, refrigerators, freezers and microwaves $15 each; washers, dryers, dishwashers, stoves, furnaces and water heaters no charge; up to four tires under 24 inches $8 each, five or more at $460 a ton.

No — and where it goes instead

The Wisconsin asbestos rule

DNR chapter NR 447 requires the owner or operator to thoroughly inspect a building before demolition or renovation. A single-family or one-to-four-unit residential demolition is typically exempt from DNR notification unless it is part of a road project, a commercial or industrial development or urban renewal, and renovation of a single isolated residence is exempt regardless of ownership. A commercial demolition must be notified through the DNR's online ARDN system at least 10 working days before work starts, with fees of $135 for small quantities of regulated material, $400, $700 and $1,325 as the quantity rises. Regulated asbestos-containing material is removed by a licensed abatement contractor before demolition and never goes in a roll-off. The Dane County landfill takes asbestos only on the first Wednesday of the month by permit at $82.10 a ton; the Green County landfill does not take it at all; Janesville takes it only with the Solid Waste Manager's prior approval.

The other landfills on the run

Loads from Stoughton and Oregon can tip at the Dane County landfill (Rodefeld) at 7102 Maahic Way, Madison — Dane County waste only, so a Janesville job never shares a box with one. It takes mixed refuse at $60.10 a ton, construction debris at $63 through its recycling building if the load is at least half clean wood, metal, cardboard or aggregate, clean shingles at $65 and clean brush at $40, and it refuses Freon appliances, propane tanks, cardboard, cans, waste oil, chemicals and electronics. Loads from Monroe and Brodhead go to the Green County Landfill at W2002 County Highway SS in Brodhead, Monday to Friday 7 am to 3 pm, at $77 a ton for garbage and $100 a ton for construction waste; it refuses brick, cement, concrete, dirt, asbestos, railroad ties and telephone poles, and "mixed demolition/trash loads are required to be separated." The Walworth and Jefferson County loads go to a DNR-licensed private landfill — Mallard Ridge in Delavan or Deer Track Park in Watertown, both licensed for construction debris, shingles and asbestos — which publish no gate fees. Nothing goes to a random dump.