Eco-municipality - Sustainable Community. These ideas can't co-exist with "take garbage for cheap" landfilling. Things to change in Jvl - Businesses that don't recycle - how many people empty their car out at the gas station or McDonald's drivethru? These businesses don't recycle, even though it is a State law. Also observe Jvl festivals - for example, the Corn Roast; they serve beer in disposable cups - (can they be recycled in Jvl, #1 or 2 plastic?). A great idea, how about putting Sharpies at the beer stations so people can write their name on their cup - AND REUSE IT - get a refill, instead of throwing and getting another. Throwing and getting another. Then, observe whether separate trash cans are provided for recyclables - or whether the plastic cups are sorted from trash, or simply dumped in the landfill. EVERYONE in Wisconsin is required to recycle, not only residents. These are all huge issues - thank goodness there is a group to handle these things - and make some changes - raise awareness.

Why should Beloit be farther ahead? Where did Janesville drop the ball on being green?

Well, changing the stoplights introduces other negatives such as speeding and safety issues. It's more complex than saving energy.
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There are so many things that we could be doing it isn't a situation where we need to pit one against the other. In fact, just for the landfill, we should be investigating whether we can recover methane for sale (right now, I believe, we're merely monitoring emissions -- correct me if I'm wrong). We can also consider trash-to-energy alternatives. We should always be clear on our trade-offs, though. Janesville has a lot of sand and gravel extraction sites (it's a hidden industry) that could be future landfills, depending on factors such as groundwater. Mainly, we don't know what landfill regulations will be in place in 2020 or 2040.
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But the most important thing we can do with the landfill is reduce the waste stream. The city already requires recycling, and I don't know if they fully recover the costs on that. But there could be an overall plan to, for instance, reduce the packaging use by the city and citizens. That's just a beginning. Many European cities already have waste-reduction programs in place. They require cooperation from the citizens, of course, but if people understand they're saving themselves money, they can be persuaded to do more stuff.
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Basically, I hope the sustainability committee is looking at the big picture and using things like a landfill fee as a first step.

There are already fees for using the landfills; our property taxes and the stated fees at each of the fills. Large loads get charged. If you want to "green" up the environment, change the traffic light patterns to something that promotes traffic flow. Running the same anti-cruiseing light pattern on Milton Ave. for regular travelers/commuters is causing more congestion and pollution than most of our industry. This exact topic has come before the city in several town hall style meetings A LOT. Yet, they do nothing, and we have people driving 35-40 mph down side streets just to avoid the lights on Milwaukee St. and Milton Ave..

Good idea on getting local expertise from Beloit. One more idea:
Why don't we survey ALL city of Janesville employees to see from their perspective how we can make Janesville a more "green" community? They're the ones with the expertise in their particular areas and I am sure many have great ideas. Many of their ideas would probably even save us money, make us safer, and make Janesville even better.

Start chaging fee for the landfill. I am sure once that is done, you will see janesville start to look like a landfill.