HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn (WTVF) — Hendersonville is ending city's two-year recycling pilot program. More than 800 homes will no longer receive the free pickup.
The City of Hendersonville decided to trash the idea at a board meeting Tuesday night. The program began as a six-month free recycling pickup service for more than 800 Hendersonville homes, then turned into a two-year plan. The program will end on October 30.
Notices for neighbors went out on Thursday. Jason DiStefano, owner of Green Village Recycling brought the program idea to the city years ago. His team went out to let neighbors know the free service is over. For more than 400 homes, that means their last pickup day was Tuesday and the other half last pickup day will be next Wednesday.
"The best thing that the city of Hendersonville can do and many cities throughout Middle Tennessee is to understand the challenges that we are faced with our landfilling situation. It is not going to get better," said DiStefano.
Mayor Jamie Clary says the city has a new plan. Clary plans to reintroduce a proposal that would create a recycling program, but this one comes at a cost. While the program proposed will no longer be free, it will offer a discount for those already paying for recycling.
"We had two proposals on our agenda on Tuesday and neither one of them passed," Clary explains. "One of them is coming back. What that is going to enable us to do is to go from an 800 house pilot program to possibly serving 18,000 houses.
DiStefano said he just doesn't want to see the program go to waste.
"It is very important that city leaders work together, plan and adopt programs that help recycling occur and to help to fund that recycling," he said.
In the meantime, DiStefano said if neighbors want to continue to recycle they can for a fee.
