About Us

Brown . Outagamie . Winnebago Tri-County Partnership

In 2001, Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago Counties joined forces to form the Tri-County Regional Partnership. This cooperative agreement paved the way for development of a regional recycling system that would serve municipalities in all three counties. In 2008, the agreement was amended to include the planning, construction, and operation of a new single-stream recycling facility, located in Appleton and operated by Outagamie County. The operation of the Tri-County Recycling Facility began in July of 2009 and today continues to serve residents of Northeast Wisconsin, providing cost-efficient sorting and marketing of recyclable materials that are banned from landfill disposal.

As a centerpiece of Wisconsin’s recycling industry: the Tri-County partnership creates jobs, protects the environment, conserves resources, provides renewable energy and promotes the message, “The more you know the smarter you’ll throw,” to its residents.

There’s more to recycling than collecting materials at the curb, and there’s more to landfilling than dumping garbage in a hole. Over the years, the Tri-County partners have developed revolutionary processes and efficient facilities with strong partnerships for the long-term benefit of area residents. 

Single Stream Recycling Facility

The state-of-the-art Tri-County Recycling Facility, operated by Outagamie County Recycling & Solid Waste, was completed in 2009 and is one of the largest publicly owned and operated, single-stream recycling facilities in the United States. The facility not only serves the needs of the 65 communities in the Tri-County region, it has grown to accept material from most Northeast Wisconsin and some Upper Michigan communities covering nearly 16% of the state’s population. More than 100,000 tons of recyclables are processed each year with this material processed within two shifts.

Single-stream recycling means all accepted recyclables can be placed into one bin or cart. Using one collection bin or cart makes recycling easy and convenient. The single-stream method also offers communities the option to move to an automated collection system.

When recycling trucks leave our neighborhoods, they travel to our facilities where the recyclables are:

  • Separated from one another by hand and by high-tech sorting equipment
  • Compressed into storage bales for easy shipping
  • Marketed and sold to companies to be re-manufactured into a wide array of new products

A centerpiece of Wisconsin's recycling industry

Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago counties have enjoyed a partnership since 2007 that has created landfill and recycling efficiencies for benefit of all residents.