News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Warren County Commission approved five year sanitation contract with Capital Waste Services (CWS) to continue service at the close of previous contract.
Solid Waste Director Josh Roberts said the county’s previous contract was $45.30 a ton but rates have shot up across middle Tennessee.
“There’s a lot of challenges to the trash and the landfills,” Roberts said. “And we were blessed on this five year, I feel like, and the $52 a ton processing fee. I was really satisfied with the number that we come in at.”
He said he had been hearing a lot of rates in $70 plus range in the region.
“When that number come in I was very satisfied for the Warren County taxpayer,” Roberts said. Roberts said several companies looked at the request for proposals, but CWS was the only bid submitted.
Roberts said the community also saves money on services and helps the environment when they help divert solid waste. He said sanitation works with a recycler in McMinnville and they try to recycle all they can including plastics, cardboard, oil, metal and tires.
He said recycling accepts less material than they had in the past, but every time they take a load that is another load diverted from the landfill.
“We’ve got our five-year plan in place and it’s diversion rate, diversion rate, diversion rate,” Roberts said. “Anytime you can divert trash from the landfill you are saving the planet and of course that’s our end goal.”
Roberts said everyone has to work together and do the best they can. He asked that people help recycle by sorting their materials at the convenience center.
“If you’re going to divert and save space in the landfills, you’re going to have to recycle,” Roberts said.
