Construction companies eager for new recycling facility at Davidson Co. landfill

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - The garbage giant, Waste Management, has started building a new recycling facility for construction and demolition (C&D) waste at its Davidson County landfill, much to the anticipation of construction companies across Nashville.

Last year, the Southern Services landfill stopped accepting C&D waste from small haulers after the Metro Nashville Solid Waste Board denied an expansion to the landfill.

Faced with what it calls a C&D waste crisis, Waste Management will now open a new recycling facility in September.

It’s designed to accept up to 1,200 tons per day of C&D material, more than 10 times the site’s current recycling capacity, Waste Management said.

“For people like me, just small little businesses, it’s definitely going to help us out a lot,” Tysen Ellis, owner of Ellis Excavation, said. “If I can have my own dump trucks and take it myself to the landfill, it helps out. I can get the job done in a quarter of the time.”

Since Southern Services began limiting its ability to collect C&D waste, many construction companies had to hire private dumpster services or drive nearly an hour to the nearest dump that would accept their waste.

For Ellis, it meant putting a halt to his demolition jobs.

“I just quit demoing houses because it was taking too long to get the dumpster,” Ellis said. “I get phone calls all the time from people trying to figure out where to take stuff to dump it.”

Waste Management expects the new facility to be able to recycle about 40% of the wood, metal and concrete that will be dumped there.

“It’s also a sustainable solution that’s not offered here in Nashville. There’s very little to no construction and demolition recycling going on here,” Don Gentilcore, Area Director of Disposal Operations with Waste Management, said. “So customers can put all their C&D materials in one can, bring it to us, we’ll sort it and make sure what’s recovered, gets recycled.”

Gentilcore believes with the rapid growth in Nashville, homes will be built faster and demolitions will be completed quicker because of their new facility.

“With that explosive growth in the area, we recognize the need to have a facility to manage that debris,” Gentilcore said.

The development of a new C&D recycling facility on site will allow Waste Management to provide additional disposal options and capacity to its customers while still utilizing the co-located landfill to dispose of non-recyclable materials, Waste Management said.

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