RACINE, WI – The City of Racine in July will open a new facility to improve waste and recycling operations and accept drop-offs from residents.
The facility is the city’s solution to dispose of garbage and recycling after the privately owned Kestrel Hawk Landfill closed. It will also replace Racine’s Pearl Street Facility as the main drop-off point for residents’ bulky household waste and furniture, and items that require special disposal such as tires, electronics, and appliances.
“When the landfill closed, we were forced to make a change,” Mayor Cory Mason said. “We explored several options and found that building this facility is the most cost-efficient way to keep Racine’s waste collection and disposal running smoothly. It means city government can keep doing its job. Most residents shouldn’t notice everything that will be accomplished behind the scenes after we empty their garbage and recycling bins.”
Construction began in spring 2023 and was completed in June of this year. Through the Racine Works Program, the construction project generated about 15,000 hours of work for underemployed and unemployed City of Racine residents. Racine-based Bukacek Construction was the lead contractor.
The city-owned building at 6300 21st St. serves as both a Waste Transfer Station and Residential Drop-Off Facility. It includes environmental sustainability features, and systems to clean stormwater.
The city built this facility because it needed a long-term strategy after the closing of the Kestrel Hawk Landfill on 21st Street where garbage trucks previously delivered solid waste. Options included having city garbage trucks take waste directly to landfills that were located farther away, or privatizing waste pick-up and disposal entirely.
Those options were all more expensive. Racine instead built this facility where city-owned trucks will deliver garbage and recycling collected from homes. It will be compacted at the facility. A private trucking company will pick up and haul waste to a landfill in Franklin, and recyclable materials to a center in Germantown.
About 210,000 pounds of recyclable materials and more than five times that amount of solid waste will pass through this facility each week.
Starting July 2, city residents will use this new location instead of Racine’s Pearl Street Facility if they choose to drop off bulky household waste and furniture. Residents can also drop off items such as tires, electronics, and appliances that require special disposal. In keeping with current city policy, construction waste is not accepted.
The Residential Drop-Off Facility will be open the same hours as the Pearl Street Facility: Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., excluding holidays. Residents can pay for drop-offs using credit or debit cards, and Apple Pay. Cash is not accepted.
The Racine Wastewater Utility’s Household Hazardous Waste events will also be held at the new facility on the third Saturday of every month through October. During those events, residents can dispose of items including batteries, oil-based paint, automotive fluids or fluorescent light bulbs.
