Back in April I wrote a column titled “Garbage: Not always a stinky subject.” I could recycle that headline today (pun intended), since I have more good news to share.
Lawrence County has won a $125,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation to help construct our first permanent convenience center. The City of Loretto is donating land for the site just off Busby Road, near its wastewater treatment facility. Construction is slated to begin soon.
Many of you are taking advantage of our new mobile convenience center program, which stations a garbage truck at four different Lawrence County locations four mornings a week. This allows you to bring household garbage and recyclables to a place more convenient than the Lawrenceburg Transfer Station, which was previously the only alternative.
Here’s a reminder of that schedule:
Tuesdays: Loretto Wastewater Treatment Plant, 60 Busby Road (site of the new convenience center)
Wednesdays: West End Community Club/Fire Hall, 5520 Waynesboro Highway
Thursdays: Summertown Fire Hall, 140 Highway 20, Summertown
Fridays: New Prospect Community Center, 4430 Pulaski Highway, Lawrenceburg.
The truck is at these locations from 6 to 10 a.m.
Our plan is to build permanent convenience centers in these four areas of the county. Giles County has four convenience centers, all built with the help of grants like we received. We are making a great start toward that goal.
In more good news, Lawrenceburg-Lawrence County Solid Waste Director Gary Wayne Hyde was named the 2024 Top Leader in recycling on August 23 at the Tennessee Sustainability Conference in Gatlinburg. Hosts for the event were the Tennessee Recycling Coalition, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and the Tennessee Environmental Conference.
It’s a very well-deserved honor. Gary Wayne Hyde has worked in the business of solid waste since he was old enough to ride on the back of a garbage truck. He was Lawrenceburg’s Sanitation Department Manager when the city and county consolidated services in 2002, and he was named Lawrenceburg-Lawrence County Solid Waste Director.
In that position, he helped design and operate our recycling program from the ground up. Early on he helped us win grant funds for a new baler, a “pick line” conveyor belt where a team of inmates sort recyclables, and recycle drop-off buildings that were located at county schools. While these are no longer available, recycling can be dropped off at the Transfer Station and mobile convenience center sites.
In one recent year Lawrence County recycled 77% of its waste, sorting and selling bales of #1 and #2 plastics, mixed paper, cardboard, scrap metal, and aluminum. The recyclable market goes up and down; right now prices for cardboard are somewhat improved. Cardboard is our biggest recyclable by volume, primarily thanks to a route Solid Waste employees run five days a week to pick up waste cardboard at 150+ local commercial and industrial businesses. A grant provided the box truck used exclusively on that route.
In 2014 our Solid Waste program won the 2015 Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award because it surpassed the state’s goal for recycling ten years before the deadline. Our solid waste operation and facilities were cover stories in Tennessee Public Works magazine’s July/August 2007 and September/October 2013 issues.
In 2022, Gary Wayne was named Director of the Year at the Tennessee Solid Waste Directors Association’s fall conference.
This most recent award recognizes Gary Wayne’s pioneering work in Tennessee’s recycling programs, and his efforts on behalf of Lawrenceburg and Lawrence County. I am so happy to congratulate him on this much-deserved recognition, and thank him for the work he continues to do.
