Sauk County, WI Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Sauk County Code § 7.069 sets the placement rules for composting facilities, recycling centers, waste transfer stations, and dumpster storage in the unincorporated county. Section 7.069(1)(a) requires that all such facilities, and the storage of any dumpsters associated with them, sit no closer than 1,000 feet from any residential dwelling other than one belonging to the facility's own owner, agent, or employee. Section 7.069(1)(b) layers on a second, overlapping 1,000-foot buffer measured from six additional protected uses: a recognized place of worship, a public or private elementary or secondary school, a public or private day care or kindergarten, any residential dwelling other than the owner's or an employee's, the boundary of a platted residential subdivision, and any public park.

Operating, or causing to be operated, such a facility inside any of those buffers is expressly declared a violation of the chapter. Beyond the setbacks, Section 7.069(2) bars these facilities from mapped floodplains, wetlands, and shorelands as defined in Sauk County Code Chapters 8 and 9, and Section 7.069(3) requires vegetative screening under Section 7.043. Because the setback runs from residential dwellings generally, not just from the facility's own zoning district, a proposed dumpster storage or recycling site has to be checked against every dwelling and protected use within 1,000 feet before it can be sited.