Putnam Solid Waste To Open Bids For New Class I Waste Contract

Putnam County Solid Waste Department will open bids Thursday for contracts to transport and dispose of Class I solid waste.

Director Doug Ashburn said Class I solid waste is your typical household garbage.  Ashburn said they have a Class III landfill at Cookeville Boat Dock for construction materials disposals, but work with Class I waste in another way.

“Class I it’s a different process and there’s a whole lot more to that, you have to have liners and stuff in place, and it’s a bigger operation,” Ashburn said. “It’s a little more stringent to have a class I. So at this point, it’s easier for us to ship it out.”

Ashburn said they are happy with the current contract, but they have to rebid it because the county is finishing up its ten-year contract. He said after opening bids, they plan to award the contract in the next five to seven days.

Ashburn said that contract ends in November, but they wanted to get the new one in place ahead of time. He said concerns with the labor force drove that decision.

“With the employee issues across the country and available equipment, we wanted to do it a little bit ahead of time just to give people time to purchase equipment and find employees,” Ashburn said.  “So it will start on or about December 1st.”