On July 1, Metro Nashville is expanding the list of things you can’t throw in the trash can. Televisions, computer monitors and other electronics will no longer be allowed.
But the city will continue to rely on education – rather than enforcement – as a way of encouraging people to move things from the trash to the recycling stream.
During Mayor Karl Dean’s first year in office he appointed a Green Ribbon Commission to come up with ways to promote recycling. In 2011, yard waste was banned .
Two years later it was cardboard. Now, it’s electronics. But these “bans” have had no teeth.
There have
been no fines or penalties, other than the trash collector skipping right past your bin.
John McFadden with the Tennessee Environmental Council agrees with the city’s approach. He says recycling should be an easy option, not a requirement.
“The more convenient we can make it, the better, it seems to me, it’s going to be,” said McFadden.
But recycling electronics will require a trip to one of the city’s two
hazardous waste facilities. Businesses will have to use a private company.
Nashville’s latest attempt to promote recycling comes as curbside collection has
leveled off.
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