America in Bloom Judges Tour Landfill
Article taken from our employee newsletter, The Scoop, August 2007

In mid-July, America in Bloom judges toured Winnebago Landfill as part of their official visit/review of Rockford. The city is in a nation-wide competition of similar size communities. It was judged in several categories including citizen involvement, tidiness, urban forestry, landscaped areas, floral displays and environmental efforts. Under that last category, judges wanted to see the Landfill. Leonard Perry from Vermont and Katy Moss Warner from Florida were the judges. Their results and the winners will be announced this fall.

Employees of Winnebago landfill who work regularly on the landscaping and liter control

Responsible. Very-well maintained frontages. Forward thinking. Garbage is a big and highly regulated business. These are some of the words used by the judges during their one hour tour of our facility. “What you have here shows that you care and pay attention to your campus. You can’t create this well-managed business for just a tour. You do this important work and give this level of attention to what you do all the time. We can tell,” concluded one of the judges.

As the judges were in a vehicle on top of the operating face observing actual landfill operations, a good old Midwestern summer storm blew up. Big dark clouds. Winds. Both judges had never seen a storm blow up that quickly! As they watched operations switch from normal to shutdown; as they observed Jeff Theien checking processes; as they saw workers seek shelter; as trucks slowed and moved to safety; they realized what they were witnessing. Both said in unison, “responsible… what a responsible company.”