ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – A truck stops nearly every minute on a scale inside the Winnebago Landfill. Once cleared to drive through, they pull ahead around man-made hills covered in dirt.
“Without us, the trash will pile up,” said Blake Balogh. The landfill’s district manager oversees the 800 acres owned by Waste Connections.
“Never thought about being in the landfill business, but once it gets in your blood, you kind of stick with it.”
Around 2012, the Winnebago County board approved an expansion of the landfill. A 2025 report from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency shared it reached 3,447,091 cubic yards of disposal — the most of northwestern Illinois’ 7 landfills. Balogh says Winnebago and Boone counties annually contribute about 400,000 tons of waste to that statistic…