Metropolitan Council Committee: Transportation & Infrastructure - Solid Waste Subcommittee August 18, 2026

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[0:02] Good afternoon.
[0:03] This is the Solid waste subcommittee.
[0:06] It is Tuesday, August 18th at 430, and we will call this
[0:10] meeting to order.
[0:11] Um, we have several meetings members who will join us.
[0:17] Next we will
[0:19] get started just doing make good use of our time.
[0:21] So I want to start with recognizing Matt Purvis, um,
[0:25] council liaison from the solid waste from the National Waste
[0:29] Services to talk about the key performance Indicators review.
[0:32] Absolutely. Yes.
[0:33] So Matt Purvis on the council liaison for the Department of
[0:36] Waste Services or Natural Waste Services.
[0:38] Uh, and so as a baseline, last month when I was here, uh, our
[0:44] service rate for all three of our trash haulers, both us and
[0:47] our two contractors combined, was 99.72%.
[0:52] Our service rate for recycling, which is all us, is 99.76%.
[0:57] And then from June 1st to July 21st, we had an average daily
[1:01] average of 102 trash misses across all three of our trash
[1:06] haulers and 35 recycling misses, which just in in
[1:12] context is 0.28% of our daily trash stops and 0.24% of our
[1:17] daily recycling stops.
[1:19] And then moving forward now, from July until now, our
[1:23] service rate for all three
[1:24] trash haulers combined was 99.76%,
[1:28] and our service rate for recycling is 99.74%.
[1:33] And from July 1st to now, we've had a daily average of 80 trash
[1:36] misses across all three trash
[1:37] haulers and 35 recycling misses.
[1:40] So again, 0.22% of our daily
[1:43] trash and 0.24% of our daily recycling.
[1:46] So, uh, very stable if not improving.
[1:50] And can you talk about how you, when you were made aware of
[1:53] those misses, how quick the, the, um, the remedy.
[1:58] The turnaround time.
[1:59] So our goal is always to hit
[2:01] under three days turnaround time.
[2:04] Um, we know our both of our contractors are running a
[2:06] little above that right now, and ours is somewhere in the
[2:09] middle of two two point such days.
[2:13] So our turnaround times are our turnaround times where we need
[2:16] we need them to be.
[2:17] We're still working to get our contractors there as well.
[2:20] Great. Any any comments on those KPIs?
[2:23] Other.
[2:23] I was going to say regarding recycling as well.
[2:26] Um, we are in the process of further separating, separating
[2:29] out our recycling commodities at our convenience centers and
[2:33] Drop-Off sites.
[2:34] So East has been done already with the other convenience
[2:37] centers to come.
[2:38] As we get we're looking for
[2:40] more replacement boxes and and signage.
[2:43] And so we're awaiting additional signage and box
[2:45] placement box placements.
[2:46] So Omaha and Anderson, we're looking to be in place with
[2:50] those by September 1st and is out by September 8th.
[2:53] And talk about what that does in terms of what we get.
[2:56] Absolutely. So what we are doing in effect, is right now
[2:59] at all those sites, we have one box that has plastics, tin,
[3:03] metal or like tins and other metals and aluminum cans.
[3:06] All of those are in one box right now.
[3:08] Those essentially go to the exact same place that our
[3:11] curbside mixed goes.
[3:13] So it's a lower value.
[3:14] It's just a lower separation.
[3:16] What we're doing and what we've done at East already is we have
[3:19] a box for plastics, a box for aluminum cans and a box for
[3:24] other metals, like other tins and other things like that.
[3:28] What that does, in effect, is those commodities split by
[3:32] themselves are a much higher value.
[3:34] Aluminum itself is nearly a dollar a pound.
[3:38] So it is very valued to sell, very valuable to sell back that
[3:41] we are in the way that we've been doing it, diluting that
[3:44] value incidentally.
[3:46] So this will effectively allow us to not only directly market
[3:51] those materials coming from our drop off sites, but market them
[3:54] at a much higher cost.
[3:56] Excellent. Good.
[3:57] Financial stewardship.
[3:58] Other comments or thoughts for that?
[4:01] Um. Can we?
[4:03] I would love for this community to this committee to have an
[4:08] opportunity to see how some of this stuff actually happens.
[4:11] And I guess, let me back up one more thing on the on the data.
[4:15] Are we now able to have a report that I can find on the
[4:19] National Waste Services site that says, we got this many
[4:22] pounds of this and it's going
[4:26] somewhere to be turned into new carpet.
[4:29] We we can we can certainly get those destinations.
[4:31] The, the active rolling tonnage totals will be a little bit
[4:35] harder to get.
[4:36] We can actually update our upstate, update our website
[4:39] with the destinations in
[4:42] products that they already are getting.
[4:43] We can work towards having
[4:46] estimates of ten inches or something.
[4:47] I think that's and I was going to say that full data would be
[4:50] we would make available and uh,
[4:52] collect it for the quarterly report.
[4:55] We're required as counsel.
[4:56] Okay. That's terrific.
[4:58] And that quarterly report will have like x amount of tons X
[5:02] amount of revenue generated.
[5:05] Or is there anything that shows like here's how much you know
[5:09] this recycling has earned.
[5:11] Let's practice.
[5:12] We can do that.
[5:12] We have I don't think we've had that in previous quarterly
[5:15] because we we've been very limited in the amount of data
[5:18] we were able to get from who was managing our material.
[5:21] But we can we can do that as.
[5:23] Well, because I think that'd be great for, you know, John
[5:27] Public to go online and see who may be skeptical about costs
[5:33] and Rois to go back and see.
[5:35] All right.
[5:36] So this amount of aluminum has generated this amount of
[5:39] revenue to the city.
[5:42] Certainly doing to you know, the goal would be to get this
[5:44] to ultimately pay for itself.
[5:46] Could go, um, anything else on KPIs.
[5:49] So any chance we can get a tour or.
[5:52] Something, certainly, so we can.
[5:53] Obviously, those relationships are still pretty new with the
[5:56] with these in-town collection sites, but we can.
[6:00] We can certainly work on putting that together.
[6:01] They've expressed in the past willingness to do something
[6:05] like that.
[6:05] So it's a matter of getting it scheduled and figuring it out.
[6:07] But we can we can work on that.
[6:08] Great. Is that.
[6:09] I mean, is that if we set that up.
[6:11] Is that something people could do?
[6:12] Yeah. Early in the morning, later in the day.
[6:14] Is there a specific time that's better or worse?
[6:16] Anybody got opinions on that for me?
[6:18] Afternoons tend to be better, but then Fridays I'm usually
[6:22] free all day.
[6:23] So.
[6:24] Any other opinions?
[6:25] I'll figure.
[6:25] It out.
[6:26] Okay? Yeah.
[6:26] Just send me dates and I'll try to work it out.
[6:29] Yeah.
[6:30] Um, every day is different, unfortunately.
[6:32] Yeah. Same with the of the schedule for.
[6:35] Fortunately, I guess.
[6:36] Um, if this line of work.
[6:37] We can't really plan out more than a week.
[6:39] Um, we can do a.
[6:40] Few.
[6:40] Afternoons in general are
[6:42] better than mornings and just mornings.
[6:44] Mornings work too.
[6:45] We can make more contacts.
[6:47] The two kind of options would either be the person, the
[6:51] company that's getting our paper and cardboard right now,
[6:53] which is WestRock, they're in North Nashville off of 19th
[6:56] 19th Avenue North, I think, uh, or, uh, who's getting our
[7:00] glass, which is recycling services in Old Hickory.
[7:03] So nothing's too far.
[7:04] Yeah. And those are both really interesting to see.
[7:07] Awesome. Okay.
[7:08] Anything else on first hand?
[7:11] Firsthand experience update on illegal dumps?
[7:15] Yes. So, uh, my my team actually was out, uh, sitting
[7:20] on illegal dumps today.
[7:21] Uh, and I had done an investigation of a list of five
[7:24] addresses I had had a week or two ago or something like that.
[7:29] Um, the biggest tool Waste Services has in trying to help
[7:33] that issue would be our private collection permits.
[7:35] Um, when we started the year, we had 58 permitted haulers.
[7:40] Uh, people that haul trash within the within the bounds of
[7:43] Davis County.
[7:44] Uh, we had done a lot of investigating and a lot of kind
[7:47] of compiling old lists that were historical and, uh,
[7:50] different databases.
[7:51] And we came up with ultimately we think there's over 200 non
[7:55] permitted haulers out there.
[7:56] And so in late July, we sent out a mailer, uh, to at least
[8:01] 250 of those telling them, hey, this is metro code.
[8:05] You need to here's the process you need to follow.
[8:08] You have 30 days before we
[8:09] start really doing more about it.
[8:11] And so that 30 days is coming up pretty soon.
[8:14] And so we're going to be I'm going to be on the phone.
[8:16] I've been on the phone already.
[8:17] We've heard from about 20 of the ones we've sent out to um,
[8:20] and another probably 15 of those there's told us they're
[8:23] they no longer operate or things like that.
[8:25] We're bought and sold.
[8:27] Um, so we've made progress, but pretty soon we'll be on the
[8:30] phone all the time calling these contacts to let them
[8:33] know, uh, that we need we need permits and need to know where
[8:37] they're taking the materials.
[8:39] And what they're picking.
[8:41] Correct. Right.
[8:41] So at that point, when we have everybody permitted, we should
[8:45] be getting monthly reports from all every holler that operates
[8:48] as to what they're picking up, how much they're picking up or
[8:51] what they're dumping, how much they're dumping, and where
[8:53] they're dumping.
[8:54] Gotcha. So all of that should go together to give us really
[8:58] good data and be able to
[9:02] more get those folks under compliance when it comes to
[9:05] their dumping wherever they feel like.
[9:07] Yeah.
[9:08] That's that's fantastic.
[9:09] Okay. That is that's progress.
[9:10] Any thoughts or comments on that one?
[9:12] Help me.
[9:14] The counselors that deal with that, most are on other
[9:16] committees, but we're trying to solve that one for them.
[9:18] Um, compost.
[9:20] I'd love to hear both about the the pilot, which I think is
[9:23] just kind of ongoing.
[9:24] And then is there.
[9:25] Is there any update or can we ask questions about the
[9:28] continuation of the school program that yes.
[9:33] Curbside pilot is continuing?
[9:35] Well, we we obviously every time people move.
[9:37] And so we always have a bit of a fluctuating, uh, amount up to
[9:41] that 750 households.
[9:43] Have a waiting.
[9:44] List. We do have a waiting list.
[9:45] So whenever folks drop off, we grab some more.
[9:48] So I think last time we checked, we were at 746 or
[9:50] something like that.
[9:51] But we have very good participation, a lot of
[9:55] frequent sell outs in the in that program.
[9:57] And then when it comes to the Maps program, we are in direct
[10:00] coordination with NPS leadership to figure out how
[10:02] best they want to move forward as, as to moving from their
[10:08] pilot program onward.
[10:09] But I will say maybe the most significant thing so far, other
[10:13] than just conversations inter-departmental, is we have
[10:15] submitted an application to the US Conference of Mayors for a
[10:20] Healthy and Sustainable
[10:20] Communities grant that would be 275,000
[10:25] to support three full school clusters.
[10:28] So that's 33 schools to have composting service containers
[10:31] with cafeterias, fridges, compost bags and training money
[10:35] as well, because it does take a lot of on hand folks in the
[10:39] cafeteria when when lunch is happening for the first little
[10:42] bit to make sure that everyone knows what's happening But that
[10:45] application has already received kind of the initial
[10:49] approval from the mayor.
[10:50] So you all will be seeing it in the next meeting.
[10:52] Okay, great.
[10:53] And when would when would that award happen?
[10:55] That I'm not sure.
[10:56] I think it's a rolling, but I'll have to figure it out.
[10:59] Great. Thank you for doing that.
[11:00] Question on the composting pilot.
[11:03] Has there been any discussions while looking at, you know,
[11:06] planning for next year's budget, expanding and opening
[11:10] more slots so that we can make year over year, maybe increase
[11:13] it maybe 2 or 3% a year so that we can get more people involved
[11:18] and not have a wait list.
[11:20] So not long ago, we actually had just finished an organic
[11:24] feasibility study to see what expansion of those programs
[11:28] would look like.
[11:29] The current model would be cost prohibitive at scale, so we'd
[11:33] have to figure out another way
[11:34] to do it that would be cheaper ultimately.
[11:36] So that study dove into it.
[11:38] I haven't seen it myself, but we can we can generate some
[11:41] sort of report coming from that.
[11:44] I'd like to see some planning.
[11:46] Like, why would look like to eventually take this?
[11:49] You know, at least cross USD, but eventually countywide.
[11:55] Yeah. Um, yeah.
[11:56] If we could see either that study or an executive summary
[11:59] or something.
[11:59] Yeah. We.
[12:00] Yeah we did.
[12:01] We recently finished that study.
[12:02] We also finished the last of our four season poll for our,
[12:06] uh, uh, waste stream categorization study.
[12:09] And so we have a much better idea now with that done, of
[12:12] what exactly makes up our stream.
[12:15] Right. And so you obviously want to take kind of big
[12:17] potatoes before small potatoes.
[12:19] What are the what are the biggest chunks we can take.
[12:21] We know that over over I believe over 50% of our stream
[12:25] is construction and demolition material over 50%.
[12:29] So a large percentage of what is in our waste stream is,
[12:33] according to the EPA, you know, 90% recyclable in many cases.
[12:36] So, uh, that's a huge portion
[12:39] that we're looking to, to tackle.
[12:41] Okay.
[12:41] 90.
[12:43] EPA says that CND materials roughly.
[12:46] Most most materials are 90% recycled.
[12:49] Recyclable.
[12:53] What is that?
[12:53] What?
[12:55] So the concrete can be.
[12:56] Concrete, uh, drywall bracing.
[12:59] Masonry. Not so concrete.
[13:01] It's not totally recyclable, but 90%.
[13:03] Correct?
[13:03] Correct.
[13:04] Yeah. If you have them, if you have a ton of C and D material,
[13:08] you could you could assume that the overall majority of that
[13:11] could be recycled into something.
[13:13] Okay.
[13:13] Got it.
[13:13] What themes could.
[13:14] Be. And that makes up.
[13:16] We now know that that makes up half or a little over half of
[13:20] our total waste stream.
[13:21] Got it.
[13:23] Half the game is 90% mental, right?
[13:25] The rest is.
[13:26] This is the practical application of that aphorism.
[13:30] So we can do that.
[13:31] Awesome. Um.
[13:32] Anything else on compost?
[13:35] Um. Up and down.
[13:36] Solid waste region board.
[13:37] Because both council member Bradford and, uh, um, applied
[13:42] to, to serve on that board and
[13:44] we are being nominated and have to.
[13:46] Go down there.
[13:48] Hopefully we said we would appreciate your vote for that.
[13:50] And that that enables us to then talk with surrounding
[13:53] counties and, you know, and look at the, you know, the big
[13:55] the big thing that drives all of this is that there are
[13:58] landfills in other counties where we are taking our waste.
[14:01] And those residents in those
[14:03] counties are, um, are over that.
[14:06] Um, and so anything we can do to cut down that amount is a
[14:10] good thing in the regional solutions, I think enable
[14:13] enable more things to happen.
[14:14] So we look forward to that.
[14:15] Also, the diversion ultimately saves us money and saves the
[14:18] the more the local landfills fill up, the farther we have to
[14:21] take it, the more expensive it is to deal with it.
[14:22] And so it is a long game, but ultimately, the more diversion
[14:26] we have, the more we'll save.
[14:27] Yeah.
[14:28] And everything we're doing here in in Davidson County to
[14:31] compost, see if there's a way to turn around and monetize
[14:34] that and say, all right, instead of us sending our trash
[14:37] to you now, you can send it to us for a fee, and we'll $6 and
[14:42] we'll fix it up.
[14:42] That's what's in here.
[14:43] There is a bill about the yes fee.
[14:46] Yes. So yes Bill 2026 15/18 on first reading of three.
[14:51] It's a code.
[14:52] It's a code change.
[14:53] So ultimately we have two waste generator fees in the code.
[14:58] One is for solid waste, one is
[15:00] for construction and demolition material.
[15:02] Basically the state allows us to charge a tip fee where if
[15:05] any waste is brought into the
[15:07] county or comp leaves the county.
[15:10] Uh, that when it is tipped a portion, a dollar per ton is
[15:15] owed to the county to to us.
[15:17] And so right now and the C and D portion had been changed in
[15:21] 2018 most recently.
[15:23] Uh, and so it does say if it comes into the county or comes
[15:26] from the county, you charge, you are charged that amount.
[15:31] What our current solid waste portion says is there is a
[15:36] loophole to where if somebody from out of the county brings
[15:38] it here, they technically wouldn't have to pay it under
[15:40] certain under current code.
[15:42] So that's a that's.
[15:44] Pretty.
[15:44] Close to.
[15:44] Closing that loophole.
[15:45] So a that's against what the CFD already says.
[15:47] And then B I mean that would that kind of incentivizes folks
[15:51] bringing all their trash into David's county.
[15:53] So feel free to sign on to 1518 if you if you feel.
[15:56] Like that's a would be a what prohibits prohibits folks from
[16:01] coming in.
[16:01] But if they do come in now we're generating revenue.
[16:04] Right. Because it's taken up limited space.
[16:07] It's I think it's maybe a 2 or 3 word change.
[16:09] It was just a very small loophole in the text.
[16:12] I knew I couldn't find it since I'm first reading.
[16:14] Okay. Other items to come before the board.
[16:17] All right.
[16:18] We'll wait to hear from you
[16:19] about, um, getting a tour set up.
[16:21] If we need to send out a doodle poll to see what time's work,
[16:24] maybe we can look at 3 or 4 different times and try to get
[16:27] that set up.
[16:27] I think that would be very educational.
[16:29] Sounds good for that one.
[16:30] Um. Anything else?
[16:32] If not, we are adjourned in the meeting.