Metro Public Works plans to hold six public meetings for Davidson County residents to weigh in on how the city can improve its trash pickup and environmental footprint.
The six June meetings come as the city’s growth continues, taxing current resources and leaving several downtown streets and alleys with noticeable amounts of trash, cardboard and food waste piling up.
Waste is picked up daily in downtown Nashville, but where one restaurant used to stand, there is often three to four now, and the population has risen similarly.
Councilman Freddie O’Connell thinks the deficiencies boils down to one main struggle.
“Ultimately it’s resources, but I think there also has to be some creativity applied with the resources,” O’Connell said. “Even right on the street where there is sometimes frankly, just trash.”
As Nashville hosts hundreds of thousands of people downtown for CMA Fest, keeping streets clean is as challenging as it gets. Several pedestrians said they noticed a pungent odor on the streets Thursday as high temperatures only exacerbated rotten smells.
“It’s a little like the sewer; that’s what it reminds me of. Definitely like trash,” said one Pennsylvania native passing in the alley between Tootsies and the Ryman Auditorium.
“Like sunday morning after a party at a frat house mixed with a little McDonalds grease funk,” another said. “It’s not great.”
The city’s master plan to become waste free in the next 30 years aims to create a long-term solution to the problem of ever-filling landfills. All trash picked up in downtown Nashville is taken to the Middlepoint Landfill in Rutherford County.
Nineteen counties use that landfill which is likely to reach its capacity in the next five to 10 years.
“That downtown piece is unlike anywhere else in the city,” said O’Connell who represents downtown on the City Council.
To read the full story, visit http://fox17.com/news/local/metro-nashville-to-rethink-downtown-waste-management-plan.