Fewer towns shipping their garbage to the Shawano landfill has put the facility in dire straits.
The Shawano County Solid Waste Management Board on Thursday spent more than an hour discussing the issues and looking at options to stop the bleeding despite not being provided with financial information about the operation.
City officials could not provide annual revenue or expenses for the landfill when the Leader requested the information Thursday and Friday.
The city sold the landfill property to the county in 1974, as part of a 40-year agreement, but continues to manage the landfill operation. Once the agreement ends, the property reverts to the city if it is not used as a sanitary landfill for 12 consecutive months.
The landfill currently only accepts refuse from demolitions, according to Mike Schuler, chairman of the Solid Waste Management Board. Household garbage is dropped off at the landfill’s transfer station and then shipped to Marathon County.
More municipalities in the county, especially to the west of Shawano, now ship their refuse directly to Marathon County because it is cheaper than sending it first to Shawano. That has resulted in less revenue for the landfill from tipping fees and other sources, but the operational expenses have not changed.
“I don’t know how many are left shipping to Shawano, but there are a handful of defectors right now, if you will, who are shipping directly to Marathon,” Shawano City Administrator Brian Knapp said.
The “defectors” include more than half of the 33 municipalities that signed an agreement to bring their waste to Shawano, according to information provided by the city Public Works Department. Only 15 of the municipalities still deliver to the landfill: Shawano, Cecil, Gresham, Bowler, Angelica, Bartelme, Belle Plaine, Herman, Lessor, Maple Grove, Navarino, Richmond, Washington, Waukechon and Wescott.
The town of Green Valley also is delivering its waste to Shawano, even though it did not sign the agreement. Bonduel and the town of Hutchins also did not sign the original agreement.
Without a solution or a sufficient cash flow, the city and county might look at making the landfill strictly a transfer station or possibly closing down, Knapp said.
The city plans to seek input from towns with which it has a sanitary landfill agreement about how to manage the problem. Knapp said towns that signed the agreement but no longer bring their garbage to Shawano should still have some responsibility in paying for operations.
“We believe we can ask that the townships who are part of our agreement can help with the costs of the landfill, whether they deliver their waste to us or not,” Knapp said.
Schuler, who also serves as Wescott’s town board chairman, said shipping his community’s refuse to Shawano is cheaper than sending it directly to Marathon County.
“We can’t afford to haul it to Marathon County, so we have to ship it into the city,” Schuler said.
The county is planning community meetings on Sept. 9 in Wittenberg and Sept. 10 in Shawano to get input from towns and villages on how to deal with the landfill and other future waste management issues.
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