1. Nashville’s former waste services contractor left residents with uncollected trash and recyclables. How will Metro’s shift to a new department help residents?
A: Metro’s former trash contractor, Red River Waste Solutions, was unable to complete pickup of Nashville’s trash in 2021, diverting the city’s recycling trucks to trash pickup, leaving residents without any curbside pickup for months.
Metro brought in some emergency vendors to take over pickup routes and then later signed contracts with two other companies, for a combined $15 million over several years.
Metro is also dealing with the fact that the Middle Point Landfill, where it sends much of its trash, is almost at capacity and hasn’t gotten approval to expand.
Trash pickup service has been running more smoothly but the new director will have her hands full.
2. Tell us about the new director and new department – what’s the mayor’s goals for it?
A: Metro has moved waste services from the Public Works Department to now Metro Water Services and will soon become a standalone department, with new Director Tracey Thurman working to hire people for that department.
Mayor O’Connell hired Thurman, who led the solid waste department in Lexington, Kentucky.
She will be making a starting salary of $210,000 annually.
She’s the 20th highest paid employee in Metro government — and the second highest paid in the Water Services Department, after the director who makes $283,000.
Thurman said she is focusing on Nashville’s sustainable future, which means long term solutions, like ways to divert trash from landfills, so we’ll see what those proposals look like.