In a spirited community meeting held at Metro Nashville’s Hartman Park Center last Thursday, July 27, a wide-ranging discussion about the forthcoming recycling center on Ashland City Highway North of the city was held. At issue was whether or not this is the same game of dumping on Bordeaux that has been fought for decades, but disguised as the creation of and operation of a recycling center. The call for questioning the new facility went out with a poignant plea.
“The blatant disrespect and disregard for the residents in Bordeaux continues in what can be considered as surreptitious negotiations to continue to expand the Waste Management Dump under the guise of a C and D (Construction and Demolition) recycling treatment center within the same site as the existing dump is inexcusable,” said the sponsor of the forum. “This recycling center is being built as we speak, scheduled to open in September, although discussions and approval of the center comes as complete shock to the majority of the Bordeaux community who thought that expansion of the dump was a dead issue. Once again, the feelings and consideration of the residents of Bordeaux are trivialized and ignored. Continuing to give Bordeaux anything that other districts don’t want is a practice that doesn’t seem to be going away.”
The meeting was held with a stirring personal invitation by the organizers, members of the affected North Nashville community.
“Wake up residents and supporters of Bordeaux and act in the best of your children and community for years to come in considering the environmental detriment, traffic congestion, and devaluation of your property that this Waste Management Center (Dump continuation) will bring to our community,” said an organizer. “An entire community of Black baby boomers that have been fighting this fight for decades needs your help. They are being environmentally gentrified out of their community. After finally stopping the expansion of the dump, the council is voting on bill BL2023-1993 to have all the Nashville and surrounding cities construction and recycling waste diverted to Bordeaux. Increasing dump truck traffic from 2 to 42 dump trucks an hour, during operating hours. BL2023-1993 allows upwards of 1200 tons per day of trash into the Recycling Center WM setup at the landfill. 60% or roughly 700 tons per day cannot be recycled and will be dumped onto the existing landfill. That means without appealing the court lose, they will have to be allowed to expand because we are NOT requiring them to neither sort and recycle existing landfill materials or send the 60% of new trash ( 700 + tons daily) to go to an alternate site outside the City.”
A previous meeting was held at Hadley Park, miles from the affected area, and several unanswered questions remain. As was put to the assembly: “Why are they allowing 700 tons of trash and day into a landfill that has been at capacity for years and has been denied expansion by the Solid Waste Regional Board, The City and a Judge’s ruling? Why did Metro Waste Services deny a study to see what other areas this could go into? What are the incentives to developers & contractors to sort on site and recycle? What are the penalties to / and enforcement capabilities of Metro Solid Waste? What incentives and request for vendors / contractors (other companies that recycle) to come to Nashville and compete for these materials? Why has there been only one community meeting with Bordeaux residents and on 2nd reading when admittedly this has been a 3-year in-house conversation? What companies other than WM have been contacted, and is there an official bidding process / RFP? What is the time line for other Districts to each receive their own facilities, and how is that determined? And, why wasn’t the lawsuit won against WM and the overall history of Bordeaux, its air quality, diminished land values, infringement on existing Wetlands and the Whites Creek water shed taken into account when giving WM a $47 million contract and a free pass to expand despite a court ruling?”
