Tennessee

Students at Hampton High School in Hampton, Tennessee (not far from Knoxville) recently helped streamline the garbage process in their community.

Doing so not only made life easier for sanitation workers but it has saved Carter County thousands of dollars. 

Real-World Experience for High School Students 

As part of a very hands-on school project, students in Daniel Arnett’s architecture and engineering design classes made several improvements to the sanitation building on U.S. Highway 19-E. The project wrapped up at the end of October. 

In 2018, Benny Lyons, the director of Carter County’s Solid Waste Department, approached Arnett to ask for his help. The main issue with the sanitation system dealt with the flow of vehicles into the waste center. Traffic was flowing in in 2 or 3 directions when the industry standard is a single, one-way flow of waste.

Another issue was that the dumpsters’ walls were so high, the sanitation workers had a hard time lifting the garbage bags into the dumpsters.

Planning & Executing the Updates 

Students in Arnett’s class started with a visit to the waste treatment plant. Once there, they took measurements of the space and used them to draw up designs for new ideas for traffic flow. The new plan had the dumpsters located below the vehicle area, so they would have an easier time getting the garbage into them.

After Lyons submitted the drawings, the project was approved and things were underway! By going through a student project, instead of a professional firm, the project saved the taxpayers $10,000. And according to Lyons, some of the workers to put the plans in place didn’t know that students had done the plans.

We’re passing along a message to our Tennessee customers: Anderson County will no longer recycle glass.

On August 15, WestRock, Anderson County’s recycling vendor, informed Anderson County Solid Waste that they will no longer accept glass for “receiving, handling, and marketing of glass bottles and jars collected at (the) county’s drop off centers.” The change went into effect on September 1. 

On August 29, the Marlow Convenience Center stopped accepting glass in order to accommodate the change. Residents were advised to begin throwing away their glass in the regular trash.

Anderson County Solid Waste did attempt to find an alternative way to allow residents to continue recycling glass. The issue is that all vendors that accept glass are located in the Nashville area. In addition, they only accept clear glass, and not green or amber, and offer a rate of $30 per ton. 

Anderson County produces 35-50 tons of glass for recycling each year, about a third of which is clear. That means the county could earn about $500 each year for recyclable glass. However, since the cost of hauling the loads is $1,500-$2,000 per ton, it would cost the county around $40,000 each year to haul the glass, so it simply is not feasible to continue recycling it.

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We are excited about expanding our territory here at Roll-Off Dumpster Direct. This time, we plan to move into the great state of Tennessee. This will be the hub where we will manage all of our services to the entire state.

Our scope of services in the Volunteer State includes cities like Chattanooga, Jackson, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville. Even though we’re still new in town, we are already loving traveling throughout this beautiful state!

In addition to Tennessee, we will continue to serve our other territories, including North Carolina, Florida, and New Jersey.

Rent a Dumpster in Tennessee 

Whether you’re working on a residential or commercial construction project, moving to a new home, starting a new business, or cleaning out your garage, you’ll need to rent a dumpster. Roll-Off Dumpster Direct stocks 10, 20, 30, and 40-yard dumpsters and offers advantages like flexible rental cycles and competitive rates. 

For more information, check out our Tennessee page.