Plan for twice-a-month recycling in Nashville latest victim of city's budget woes

Nashville is kicking the can down the road.

Mayor John Cooper announced Monday that plans for biweekly curbside recycling pickup are delayed due to the city's budget constraints.

Curbside recycling is currently available on a monthly basis. The plan to increase pickup to twice monthly was announced last year by former Mayor David Briley and was slated to begin next month.

City leaders have tried for years to find solutions to growing calls from residents for additional recycling services. Last spring, Nashville received $2.8 million in grants from the state and the Recycling Partnership to purchase 16 collection vehicles. With city funding, Metro Public Works hoped to hire 13 new employees to run the routes to initially expand services to an estimated 140,000 residents.

But for now, the launch for increased services is on pause as Cooper works with the finance department and Metro Public Works to determine how current and expanded services might fit into next year's operation budget.

"Biweekly curbside recycling pickup must happen, and soon. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time, as I know most of you have. But rising costs and our city’s current budget constraints mean that we must temporarily delay the rollout of an additional pickup each month," Cooper said in a statement Monday.

How Nashville recycling costs fit into the city budget

Nashville’s recycling costs have drastically increased due to changing demand patterns in overseas markets, according to Metro Public Works. The city is in negotiations with its current recycling vendor, which is losing money on its contracts.

Curbside recycling currently costs the city about $2.2 million annually, and the additional service will add approximately $1.7 million in operating costs this year, according to Metro Public Works.

Nashville already had to impound $5 million for its annual Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing to fill this year's nearly $41.5 million budget gap. To balance the budget, Cooper is also relying on more than $33 million from a mix of new revenue, largely payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTS, and reimbursements from other groups and savings from city departments.

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Last year, the city ditched its pilot glass recycling program from Lower Broadway Honky Tonks. Like many cities, Metro doesn’t take glass in residential curbside bins because of cost and cross-contamination.

The city had hoped that the glass program from the downtown bars would make glass recycling economical, and even profitable, but separation and collection challenges proved otherwise. The program collected 432 tons of glass in 12 months and cost Metro $315,000, according to the city.

But while city officials work to address expanded services, they want residents to recycle the right way,

Metro Public Works will be continuing its "Oops Tag" recycling audit program, tagging recycle bins where contaminants are found. Department officials say efforts will be focused on working with city leaders and residents to reduce contamination by 30%.

“If recycling is contaminated, it can’t be processed and it ends up in the landfill. That’s what we want to prevent," Metro Public Works Assistant Director Sharon Smith said in a statement. "Our goal is to make the launch of every other week recycling as successful as possible — and that means we want the cleanest materials possible."

Yihyun Jeong covers politics in Nashville for USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE. Reach her at yjeong@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.