Dive Brief:
- Sullivan County, Tennessee, has opened a new 16,000-square-foot recycling facility meant to increase recycling capacity across Northeast Tennessee.
- The $3.5 million county-run facility, capable of processing 12 to 15 tons an hour, will process recyclables from around the county and the broader region. Funding for the facility mainly came from federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, according to Sullivan County Solid Waste Director Mark Torbett.
- Some of the equipment for the facility was funded by a $191,939 recycling equipment grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. TDEC said it has also awarded an additional $599,330 waste reduction grant to support the county’s recycling efforts, which it expects to allocate soon.
Dive Insight:
As the population increases in Northeastern Tennessee, officials have made plans to expand recycling infrastructure to meet the growing demand.
Torbett said the facility is meant to increase recycling services, meet statewide recycling goals and manage the county’s growing waste stream. Sullivan County’s other recycling and waste facilities are beginning to reach capacity, and there are few other outlets for recyclables in the area, he said. “We’re right on the state line with Virginia, and there are about nine counties that border us that really don’t have a good outlet to move their recycling either. So this will help bring together a regional hub of sorts,” he said.
The facility is expected to install additional new equipment in coming months, including an optical sorter, he said. The building is part of a long-term plan to add more recycling infrastructure in the county. Officials hope to also build a new MRF alongside the county’s recycling facility, which will have more kinds of sortation equipment. That plan is a few years down the line, he said.
Officials have said Sullivan County and the larger Northern Tennessee region need better recycling infrastructure to serve the growing population.
Numerous cities in Sullivan County no longer have curbside recycling services, with some, like the city of Kingsport, deciding not to return to curbside collection after pausing it in 2020, instead transitioning to a drop-off “convenience center” system. Torbett said the recycling facility building plans will also help the county eventually bring back curbside recycling services.
Kingsport is also the home of Eastman, which opened its chemical recycling facility in March 2024, considered one of the largest such facilities in the world.
To collect feedstock for its plant, Eastman has in the past partnered on several regional recycling projects in the county, including hosting plastic collection drop-off points at area grocery stores and recycling collections at the nearby regional airport.
Sullivan County’s work to improve recycling infrastructure is one of several efforts in the state to improve waste management systems as some lawmakers worry about landfill capacity constraints and landfill impacts on nearby communities. Republic Services, which runs the Middle Point Landfill in Rutherford County, recently proposed an expansion meant to expand operations there for 50 years.
A new law in Tennessee will establish a bipartisan advisory task force meant to review and recommend “innovative” options for diverting the state’s waste from disposal. Those options could include improving recycling infrastructure or considering other alternatives such as incineration, energy production or “agricultural uses,” according to the bill. Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law May 15.
Tennessee state lawmakers are also in the process of formulating an extended producer responsibility for packaging bill that could be introduced next legislative session. A version of the bill introduced in January, called the Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act, was later pulled back to consider local business stakeholder interests alongside waste reduction goals, said bill sponsor state Sen. Heidi Campbell.
