The department is part of a three county regional solid waste agreement with Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago Counties known as "BOW". The three counties coordinate their waste disposal using each county-run landfill in sequence thereby sharing administration and operational costs. In Brown County, the department operates a Solid Waste Transfer Station that collects, compacts and transports waste produced by county residential, commercial and industrial users. The waste is trucked to landfills operated by one of the Tri-County Solid Waste partners.

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BOW operates a regional single stream Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Appleton that is one of the largest municipal MRFs in the country. The "MRF" processes and markets commingled residential and commercial recyclable containers and paper from the partner counties and other northeastern Wisconsin counties. Curbside recycling began in Brown County in 1994 and converted to single stream recycling countywide in 2009. Single Stream Recycling (collecting plastic bottles & containers, aluminum, tin cans, glass, and paper in one cart) in Brown County collects more than 25,000 tons per year, and has returned more than $3.1 million to customers since 2009.

 

The Resource Recovery Department also operates the Brown County Hazardous Material Recovery Facility.  The facility accepts material from residents of Brown County and serves as a regional collection facility for much of northeastern Wisconsin. Facility staff collect hazardous material directly from Outagamie and Winnebago County residents at sites in Appleton and Oshkosh The facility has collected more than 15 million pounds of hazardous materials since opening in 1996 and collects nearly 800,000 pounds each year.

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