In as few as five years Tennessee’s busiest landfill in Murfreesboro could run out of space, and thousands of tons of trash each day will have to be trucked to other communities. The region’s wasteful trash habits are now coming into focus because of Middle Point Landfill’s pending closure and the region’s economic boom, which has generated more garbage.
Nashville, one of the most progressive cities in the state, only recycles and composts 24% of its waste — well below the national average of 35%. (That figure includes businesses; the Nashville residential recycling rate is far less).
“You ask your average person where their trash or recycling goes, and they don’t know,” said Rebecca Caldwell, the solid waste program manager at the Greater Nashville Regional Council. “It’s usually seamless and it’s usually invisible… until you have something like Middle Point.”
Middle Point takes in 4,000 tons of trash — the equivalent weight of 2,600 passenger cars — on average, every single day. Metro Nashville’s residential trash ends up at Middle Point, as does garbage from 33 other counties. The bulk of the waste, however, comes from just two counties — Davidson and Rutherford. Together, they account for about 70 percent of all waste heading to Middle Point, according to state figures.
The owner of the landfill, Arizona-based Republic Services, calculates the landfill has eight to nine years remaining, based on its current daily volume and the remaining land permitted. The Rutherford County Commission last year voted down any possibility of an expansion.
Outside observers, including representatives from the Greater Nashville Regional Council and Metro Nashville Public Works, say it could be as soon as five years, or as far out as 10 before the landfill reaches capacity. They base their projection on the industry’s volatility and the region’s rapid growth. At any given time Republic could lose a large company’s contract, or gain a new one. Also, a natural disaster could hit the region and Middle Point could receive a large unexpected volume of trash.