Trash. It’s a part of everyday life, whether you’re tossing an empty bag of chips or getting rid of an old couch. It’s easy enough to see where garbage comes from, but what happens after you lug it to the curb on pickup day?
When your curbside trash is picked up by the garbage truck, it is brought to a facility called a transfer station and then continues its journey to the landfill.
But what is a transfer station and what happens there? Good question!
In simple terms, a transfer station is an industrial facility where your garbage is unloaded from the trucks that picked it up, temporarily held, and reloaded into large trailers for transport to the landfill. Transferring waste from the small trucks onto larger trailers significantly reduces transportation costs and environmental impacts of moving the trash from homes and businesses to landfills. At SWANCC's Glenview Transfer Station, approximately 3 garbage truck loads can be packed into a single trailer!
Your garbage goes to the SWANCC Transfer Station.
How does SWANCC's transfer station work?
There’s a standard process that most garbage trucks, contractors, and individual residents follow when making a stop at SWANCC’s Glenview Transfer Station.
1. Arrival: When vehicles arrive at the transfer station, they are directed to a scale where
they are weighed.
2. Unloading: Trash is then unloaded onto the floor inside the building. Equipment like
bulldozers move trash around the facility.
3. Reweigh and Payment: When necessary, private vehicles are reweighed upon exit. This determines the amount of waste left behind and payment is made accordingly.
4. Reloading: Excavators are then used to load the waste onto trailers that hold a large
capacity of material and then sent to its next destination – the landfill.
Everything a SWANCC resident puts into their curbside garbage bin ends up at the Glenview Transfer Station. Material is not sorted for recycling or reuse – its destination is the landfill. For a fee, contractors and residents can also bring garbage - including from home renovations and old furniture - to the transfer station for disposal. NO liquids, paints, electronics, compressed gases, or hazardous materials are accepted. Last year, approximately 340,000 tons of waste left the Glenview Transfer Station and was landfilled at the Winnebago Landfill near Rockford. The transfer station also accepts landscape waste from garbage companies and landscape contractors; we do NOT accept landscape waste at the transfer station from individuals.
THINK FIRST before simply throwing away materials that end up in the landfill. SWANCC encourages residents to reduce the waste they produce overall and to reuse all material as many times as possible. For items that are reusable, search for avenues to give away materials locally free of cost, such as online Buy Nothing groups, donating to reuse facilities, and utilizing scrap metal facilities. Check out SWANCC's guide "Cleaning out Quickly and Responsibly or search our Reuse and Recycling Directory for outlets for many materials.
For more information on SWANCC's Glenview Transfer Station, please visit: swancc.org/transfer-station