Channel 4 News
Posted: Aug 24, 2011 9:55 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 25, 2011 2:58 PM CDT
Posted by Kevin Young
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - If you live in Metro's Urban Services District and still don't recycle, Metro will soon be putting the heat on you to start. In fact, if you don't soon do your part you'll have to pay up.
Some changes are on the way for residents who live in the USD, the area in which Metro provides trash service and curbside recycling. The changes do not apply to those who live in the General Service District.
(Find out if you live in the USD or GSD by visiting the Metro Public Works website.)
Consider the cost of what you throw away. You may not have thought about it in these terms.
Some residents may have been taken by surprise this summer when they learned that Metro is no longer accepting yard waste in their normal curbside pick up.
Instead, you have to wait for brush pick up, drop it off yourself, or put everything in biodegradable bags - which will be picked up on the curb.
But the changes don't stop there.
Starting next summer, houses and businesses using more than two trash carts will be charged a monthly fee.
And in 2013, anyone with more than one cart will be charged. The goal with is to reduce the waste and increase recycling.
"Metro gets paid about $23 a ton for the recycling we collect, whereas we pay over $32 a ton for waste that is put in the landfill. So whatever we reduce is money that we save for the taxpayer," said Gwen Hopkins-Glascock with Metro Public Works.
To further encourage people to reduce, re-use and recycle, the next phase of the plan, set to take effect in 2014, will ban cardboard from trash pickup.
"It's a very high-commodity in the recycling market. Break down those cardboard boxes and put them in recycling, because it's money that's returned back to Metro," Hopkins-Glascock said.
The following year, in 2015, all electronics will be banned from the garbage can.
Again, all these changes are meant to encourage people, step-by-step, to get used to recycling instead of just throwing everything away.
Metro does offer free curbside recycling, and you can get as many of those bins as you want without any additional fee.
Those recycling bins should contain paper, plastic, cardboard and aluminum. Right now, no glass is allowed, but public works officials say they are negotiating to change that.
To get one of those green recycle bins for your home or business, call 880-1000.
