• Services
• Garbage
  • What Happens to Garbage
  • Using the Materials Recovery Center
  • Disposal for Residents
  • Disposal for Businesses
  • Banned Items
• Recycling
• Yard Waste
• Food Waste
• Hazardous Waste
• Wastewater
• Biosolids

What Happens to Our Garbage?

Resource Renew doesn’t pick up your garbage, but has great advice and info about the ins and outs of “taking out the trash” in the District.

Disposal for Residents

Tips and tricks for residents to make the most out of trash day by throwing out less, plus links to licensed waste hauling companies in the area.

Disposal for Businesses

Most businesses and other non-residential entities in the service area fall under regulations that guide what may be thrown in the garbage and what must be recycled.

Banned from the Garbage

Wastes that contain hazardous materials or valuable resources are banned from landfills and, consequently, banned from our garbage.

Using the Materials Recovery Center

Our Materials Recovery Center is available for residents and businesses to dispose of or recycle many bulky items that don’t fit in the trash can, and other items – like appliances, tires and electronics – that should never go into the trash.

Garbage collection and transfer details

The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD), represented publicly by its brand Resource Renew, regulates the management of all solid waste generated within District boundaries and waste delivered to the Resource Renew Transfer Station from outside the District through the WLSSD Solid Waste Ordinance. Garbage comes from as far away as Grand Marais, MN and Ashland, WI.

Independent garbage haulers pick up garbage from area residents and businesses and deliver it to the Resource Renew Transfer Station, where the material is inspected and loaded into larger trucks for transport to the Moccasin Mike Landfill, owned and operated by the City of Superior, Wisconsin. More than 120,000 tons of garbage passes through the Resource Renew Transfer Station each year.

Although the District service area includes a portion of northern Carlton County, solid waste is managed in that area by the county. Carlton County residents and businesses should refer to Carlton County for the most up-to-date information on garbage and recycling in their area.

Solid Waste Management Fee: Funding Programs & Services

As the solid waste authority for southern St. Louis County and northeastern Carlton County, WLSSD provides various solid waste services, information, educational programs, and solid waste rules, planning and enforcement. These services and programs benefit our community and help protect public health. WLSSD funds a portion of these services and programs by collecting the solid waste management fee from all residences and businesses within the District’s boundaries.

WLSSD collects the solid waste management fee in two ways

1. as a volume-based fee paid directly to your waste hauler
2. as a line item on residential property tax statements.

The solid waste management fee funds programs related to hazardous waste disposal, recycling, composting and waste reduction. The fund contributes to the operation of the Resource Renew Materials Recovery Center, Household Hazardous Waste Facility, Yard Waste Compost Site, and Organics Composting Facility. This fee also funds recycling operations and grants, solid waste planning and management, and waste education programs.

2026 Solid Waste Management Fee Fact Sheet