How To Make Your Visit To The Brown County Transfer Station as Easy and Safe as Possible

Your garbage is overflowing, and it just won’t fit in your bin. You missed your garbage pickup, or you’ve simply got large items such as furniture that you want to get rid of, but you have no clue what to do with it. You learn about the Brown County Solid Waste Transfer Station. “Okay,” you think, “I’ve never been there before, and I have no idea how things work there; I’ve got no idea what to do!” Well my puzzled friend, luckily for you, we are here to help you avoid making unsafe mistakes by making your use of the Solid Waste Transfer Station as smooth and easy as possible.

Before You Arrive

Before you even leave your house, you’ll need to make sure your load only has solid waste that is allowed at the Transfer Station. Waste that is not accepted includes electronics (computers, televisions, monitors, etc.), liquids (paints and stains, motor oil, antifreeze, etc.) and yard waste such as branches, leaves, and brush. Secondly, you will need to make sure all your items are securely placed in your back seat, trailer, or trunk. If you are using a trailer or a pickup truck, loads need to be tarped to ensure you don’t lose anything on the road. Once you’ve ensured that your load is acceptable and everything is secured, you’ll want to make sure to bring a bright neon shirt or safety vest. If you don’t have this, we have safety vests for sale at the scale window when you come in.

Getting Here

All right, so you’ve checked your load to make sure it’s accepted, secured all your items down, grabbed your vest, checked the prices and made sure to bring your credit card along. Now you’re ready to begin your trip to the Transfer Station grounds. We are located at 3734 W Mason Street in Hobart, approximately two miles west of the Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC.) If you’re travelling west along West Mason Street, our facility will be located on your right with a brown sign in front of it. Make sure to use the first entrance to the facility; the other opening further down is for exiting only. Once you enter, you’ll see several lanes under a large digital sign. The first two lanes leading to the left scale are for customers with small loads paying with credit cards. The right lane is automated for account customers with large loads using badges. If no other vehicles are on the scale and the light is green, drive up the ramp onto the scale to the scale house. Otherwise, wait in line behind the stop sign until no other vehicles are ahead of you, and then you may proceed. If the line is backed up beyond the ramp, please form two lines and then merge into one single-file line onto the ramp. Drive up to the blue kiosk and listen for instructions from the scale house operator given through the speaker.

Unloading

Once you’re speaking with the scale operator, you’ll be asked about things like your name and what you have for disposal. If you have only things that are charged by the count-such as appliances-or the scale operator judges your garbage load to be less than about 800 pounds, you’ll be charged right away. Put your card in the chip reader on the blue kiosk and receive a receipt in the transparent window and then you can dispose of your items and leave. For those that need to reweigh, the scale operator will give you instructions and send you on your way. What you do next will depend on the material you are disposing of.

If you’re dumping solid waste such as carpet, garbage bags, or other trash that weighs less than a few hundred pounds, you’ll proceed ahead for a few hundred feet, do a U-turn with your vehicle and pull up alongside the yellow wall and throw your load over the yellow wall into the dumpsters. The dumpsters are labelled “1” and “2” on the yellow wall, and you should dump in dumpster 1 first if it isn’t full, and dumpster 2 if it is. If both dumpsters are full, however, there are two more under a yellow square sign against the fence next to the yellow wall dumpsters.

If you have a non-freon appliance such as a water heater, dishwasher or dryer, you’ll go further beyond the two dumpsters under the yellow sign, and you’ll need to place your appliance up against the fence under the white sign labeled “Appliances”.

The next item you may be recycling is an empty propane cylinder, microwave, or a freon appliance such as a refrigerator or freezer. These items will all go to the same location. From the scale, go a few hundred feet ahead; slightly to the left you will see a dumpster that is open in the back with a yellow ramp leading up to it. Place the freon appliance, microwave, or propane cylinder inside of the dumpster as far back as possible.If you’re bringing a freezer or refrigerator to recycle, you must remove any contents such as food and drinks from the inside before bringing it to our facility, otherwise you will be charged the garbage price to dispose of it. Lead acid batteries will go into the battery box a few feet from the scale house window just to the left of the end of the scale.

Waste that needs to go in back to the Transfer Station building requires you to wear a bright vest or high visibility shirt. This includes garbage weighing more than 300 pounds, large furniture, mattresses, construction/demolition waste and clean shingles. The scale operator will direct you to follow the blacktop road in front of the scale which winds around the hill for approximately ¾ of a mile. At the end of the road you will come to two different color-coded lanes. The lane on your right is colored green and has a stop sign at the end. Loads that will be emptied by hand will go into the green lane. The lane on your left is colored yellow and is for all vehicles with automatic dump trailers. Wait at the stop sign in the lane that corresponds to the way you will be dumping your trash. Continue to wait at the stop sign until you are in the front of the line and the worker in the front-end loader flashes you a numbered card that is the same color as the lane you are in. The number corresponds to the door number that you will use to unload your material. Once you receive that number you will back into the building and unload (numbers are posted above the doors). After finishing, you will then go back the way you came in. Use the exit lane to the right of the scale house and U turn to come back onto the scale to reweigh and pay. Once you have paid, you can head out the exit. If you aren’t sure if you had to reweigh or not, check with the scale operator; it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Finally, we have the procedure for dumping clean shingles. If you are dumping clean shingles, follow the same procedure as dumping garbage in the building (follow the winding blacktop road around the hill until you get to a stop sign,) except for clean shingles you may go around the other drivers in a lane that is further right than the green lane, stop at the stop sign for traffic and then proceed past the building. Next, you’ll see two shingle piles that are right past the building. Back into the pile furthest from the building. Empty your vehicle or trailer onto the pile and once you are finished, you may head back to the scale to be reweighed.

Some Important Policies

It’s important to get to the Solid Waste Transfer Station well before closing (4:00 pm weekdays, 2:00 pm Saturdays, Noon on Saturdays during winter months) as we charge a late fee for every 15 minutes you are unloading after closing time. If you arrive fifteen minutes before closing time and it takes you until quarter after to return to the scale, you’ll be charged an extra fee. We currently accept only credit/debit cards from all major brands; no cash or checks are accepted.

Well, there you have it; a detailed guide to the policies and procedures of the Brown County Transfer Station. You now have the knowledge to make your visit to our facility a safe and pleasant one for you and others around you. We hope to see you soon!