You can help clean up your part of the county and support the Community Club in your area, whether you are actively involved in it or not. There are eight to choose from: New Prospect, West End, West Point, Henryville, Mars Hill, Crawfish Valley, Gandy, or Copperas Branch. “Donations” will be weighed and that amount will be credited to your favorite club.

Drop-offs should be made during normal business hours, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

If you typically take household garbage and recyclables to the Solid Waste facility, our new Mobile Convenience Center program should make your life a little easier. Beginning Tuesday, May 7, a garbage truck will be parked at designated locations outside Lawrenceburg for drop-offs. Unfortunately, Community Club contest litter cannot be weighed at the truck.

The truck will be parked at the following locations from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m.:

Tuesdays: Loretto Wastewater Treatment Plant, 60 Busby Road

Wednesdays: West End Community Club/Fire Hall, 5520 Waynesboro Highway

Thursdays: Summertown (address to be announced)

Fridays: New Prospect (address to be announced)

In addition to dropping off garbage and recyclables, you can pick up official Lawrence County recycle bags at our mobile convenience centers.

I am a latecomer to recycling but have fully embraced it, much to my family’s amusement. (My wife is actually not so amused with the yellow recycling bag on the kitchen floor next to her stainless steel motion sensor garbage can.) 

She and our kids like to call me “Recycle Randy,” but I don’t care what they say. I’ve discovered about 80% of the Morgan trash is recyclable, and I bet a lot of your household garbage is, too. Lawrence County paid to have 28,000 tons of garbage hauled to Mississippi last year, and reducing that saves us money. More importantly, recycling is the right thing to do for the environment.

We are constantly looking at ways to improve our solid waste system. One goal is to establish permanent convenience centers so there is more than one place in the county to drop off garbage and recyclables. We are the only county in the state with just one facility for that purpose. Giles County has four – at Bodenham, Richland, the Ag Center, and Minor Hill – that are manned on a rotating basis. Bodenham’s is on the east side of the former school, if you want to see a nice example.

We are actively pursuing grants to build convenience centers, which is how Giles County built theirs. We will need approximately two acres for each site, and Loretto has already appropriated land near its water treatment facility for a convenience center.

Finally, if you want to help make Lawrence County a cleaner place, watch this space and our Facebook Page for information about being part of the local chapter of Keep Tennessee Beautiful. We’re just getting started, but details will be announced in early May.