
Outagamie County Recycling and S
The resource recovery park in Outagamie County.
Dane County's sustainability campus could include a resource recovery park similar to this one in Outagamie County.
Construction on a replacement site for Dane County’s primary landfill — expected to run out of space in less than five years — could start by the end of this year, says Roxanne Wienkes, the deputy director of the Dane County Department of Waste & Renewables.
A “sustainability campus” — to include a sustainable business park and a new landfill — will serve as the county’s central location for treating and processing waste, and for recycling. The business park will be located next to the new landfill, just south of the old Rodefeld Landfill and the Beltline.
“Our ultimate goal is to use the landfill as a last resort and divert as much waste as possible, but it’s economically and technically very difficult to eliminate landfilling all together,” says Wienkes.
Wienkes says the Department of Waste & Renewables, which is now scattered among various locations, will establish a central site at the campus; she expects to break ground on the department’s offices and buildings by the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026.
The department has contracted with Strang architects and Foth Engineering for construction of the campus, and with SCS Engineers and Vandewalle & Associates for consulting (see Vandewalle’s website for information about their work on the sustainability campus).
The department on Jan. 21 will formally issue a “request for information” from local and national businesses interested in becoming a tenant in the business park. Wienkes says the county is “looking for forward-thinking businesses, organizations, and innovators” in several categories including large-scale waste diversion, processing, and recycling; problem materials; reuse, retail and upcycling; and research and education.
“The most compatible businesses are going to be ones that divert materials that are destined for the landfill and convert them into usable materials,” says Wienkes. “Essentially what we’re looking for is anyone nationwide or local who is interested in physically having a storefront or a business at the campus, or for research.”
Dane County is hosting informational webinars on these opportunities on Jan. 27 and Jan. 29; times and links to join the sessions are on the county’s Department of Waste and Renewables’ website.
The department has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for a $5 million Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant to create a recycling hub on the campus where people can drop off such things as excess food, clothing, furniture and mattresses at designated disposal areas, says Wienkes. “The tenants and partners being sought would then take these materials and process them,” she adds.
The department’s new headquarters will also include a waste education center, with community and workshop spaces. Wienkes says this will be an ideal destination for school field trips and community activities.

Dane County Department of Waste & Renewables
A map of the Sustainability Campus.
The goal of the sustainability campus is to 'use the landfill as a last resort and divert as much waste as possible,' says Dane County's Roxanne Wienkes.
“[It will be] a place where we can bring classrooms to teach them about waste management, or a place to hold workshops for repairing equipment or bicycles,” she says. “We [already] receive a lot of visitors for tours, for education, things like that. So we’re trying to design this facility with that in mind, where it’s safe for folks to come on site and see how the waste is processed.”
The campus will also be an asset to people who want to have access to recycled or recyclable materials, Wienkes says. She says the department’s Clean Sweep facility at 7020 Maahic Way already has a product exchange room where it accepts chemicals such as paints and stains, and anything that’s still usable can be claimed free of charge. The department also hopes to engage with local artists and provide them with pre-used materials that they can use in their work. Wienkes says that the sustainability campus would give the department even more space to distribute pre-owned items to Dane County residents.
“These materials are definitely resources,” she says, noting that bicycles would be among those items that would be redistributed. “We see a lot of stuff we just don’t have room to store that we could give away or sell.”
Construction on the new landfill is expected to start by 2027. It will be built in phases, says Wienkes. “The first phase of development will be limited to about 10 acres and we’ll expand over time as that area fills up.”