Metro Nashville’s first Convenience Center, East Center, opened in 2001, serving Davidson County residents for 25 years by providing trash and recycling collection. Since then, the Nashville Department of Waste Services has opened three more convenience centers to serve the disposal needs of county residents. Originally built as a resource for proper solid waste disposal to curb illegal dumping, these centers have become recycling hubs for hard-to-recycle items such as electronics, mattresses, household hazardous waste, cooking grease, and, as of April 2026, foam packaging.
According to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, household and business trash—also known as municipal solid waste—disposal increased by 50% from 2013–2023 and continues to rise. However, permitted landfill space is shrinking as we fill it up with more and more of our garbage. That is why the Nashville Department of Waste Services (NWS) is looking to be more sustainable with how we manage our waste materials through reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting.
In 2019, the Davidson County Solid Waste Region Board voted to approve a long-term master plan focused on sustainable materials management with the goal of reducing all waste to landfill by 90%. Nashville’s convenience centers are an important component of this plan. From July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, convenience centers kept the following out of landfills:
- 260 tons of glass recycled
- 62 tons of paper recycled
- 353 tons of cardboard recycled
- 70 tons of plastic and metal cans recycled
- 454,000 pounds of electronics recycled or repurposed
- 177,100 pounds of food waste composted
- Over 9,000 mattresses recycled
- Over 400 tons of scrap metal recycled
The newest addition to our convenience center recycling programs is foam recycling.
While many sustainability advocates would like to see foam packaging banned from use, Tennessee state law requires that regulation for packaging materials be at the state level rather than the local level. Yet 30% of landfill space is taken up by foam—an astounding statistic that needs a sustainable solution to keep it out of landfills. That is where Foam Cycle came in.
The Nashville Department of Waste Services (NWS) worked with the Plastics Industry Association, the Polystyrene Recycling Alliance, and Foam Cycle to design and install a foam recycling program at East Convenience Center. The equipment, donated to NWS, consists of a small shipping container that houses a foam densifier, three 30-cubic-yard roll-off containers for foam storage, and three smaller collection boxes. The equipment was delivered and installed in April 2026, and the program launched later that month on Earth Day.
Thanks to this strategic partnership, Nashville is home to Tennessee’s first municipal foam recycling program, where Davidson County residents can drop off their foam for recycling at no charge. NWS staff operate the densifier on a weekly, if not biweekly, basis to keep up with the mountains of foam we’ve been receiving. The densified foam is formed into “bricks” and transported to a local partner in La Vergne to be sold, keeping the process within our local economy while sustainably managing a hard-to-recycle material. It is then used to make a variety of new products, such as picture frames.
Surprisingly, the foam recycling program has introduced many Nashville residents to NWS’s convenience centers who were previously unaware of the resources we provide, most of which are at no charge. That makes programs like Foam Cycle crucial to achieving Nashville’s landfill diversion goal by not just recycling foam, but also by bringing awareness to all the recycling resources available to residents at our sites.
If you have never been to one of our centers, below is a quick rundown of what is offered.
Free to Recycle
- Glass bottles and jars
- Cardboard
- Plastic bottles, jars, and jugs
- Aluminum and steel cans
- Paper and cartons
- Foam (East Center only)
- Electronics (East, Ezell, and Omohundro Centers only)
- Batteries (East and Ezell only)
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs and tubes (East and Ezell only)
- Tires (East and Ezell only; limit four per month, no rims)
- Scrap metal (limit one bulk item and the equivalent of three trash bags' worth per day)
- Food scraps and compostable items
- Cooking grease
- Household hazardous waste (East and Ezell only; repurposed or sent for proper disposal)
Mattresses and box springs can be recycled for a subsidized fee of $12 each.
Free for Disposal
- Three bags of trash per day
- One bulk trash item per day
All four centers are open Tuesday–Saturday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., except on Metro holidays.
For more information about Nashville’s convenience centers, including locations, accepted materials, what you can and cannot bring, and fees for excess trash, visit: https://www.nashville.gov/departments/waste-services/convenience-centers.
Jenn develops education programs, stakeholder engagement, and waste reduction initiatives to help Nashvillians rethink, refuse, reuse, and recycle. Her work centers on driving behavior change for residents to reduce waste while implementing sustainable, resilient, and equitable alternatives to landfill disposal. As a dedicated public servant, Jenn has over 9 years of service with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County as well as 15 years of experience in communications, digital engagement, and public outreach across the public, private, and non-profit sectors.