In 1993, Outagamie County became the legally-established Responsible Unit (RU) for developing, implementing, and maintaining state-mandated recycling for the entire County. The County contracts with Orion Waste Solutions to collect curbside recyclables from the 68,000 households within the County, including all of Appleton and New London. The curbside recycling program is for all residents living
in a single family home, duplex, triplex or four-plex. By law, property owners or landlords of larger multi-family dwellings must provide recycling programs for their tenants. 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.
