Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell officially kicked off the citywide household recycling program with the unveiling of the rolling 95-gallon carts that will be used to collect aluminum and metal cans, paper, newspaper and cardboard from households within the Urban Services District (USD).
Mayor Purcell offered details about the program during his speech on waste management issues to an Earth Day crowd at Centennial Park April 20.
The household program started Monday, April 22, as residents began receiving carts. Carts will be distributed to more than 100,000 single-family homes within the USD during the next six months.
In his speech, Mayor Purcell said, “Forty-eight percent of our residential waste stream is paper, cardboard and cans of various types. This program is designed to recycle that huge share of our garbage and divert it away from landfills.”
Chace Anderson, assistant director of public works, oversees the recycling program. He says the new program will be larger and more inclusive than the program that ended in 2000, in which 6,000 homes participated on a regular basis.
The bins will be collected on a monthly basis to reduce program costs. Items such as glass and plastic not included in the curbside collection can be taken to any of 10 recycling drop-off centers located throughout Davidson county.