What’s happening
- March 2021 The Metro Solid Waste Region Board rejects Waste Management’s proposed 17-acre expansion. (Tennessee Lookout, 1/12/2022)
- Aug 31, 2022 WM closes the landfill to third-party haulers; intake continues only for WM-arranged loads. (WKRN, 2022)
- ~March 2023 Chancery Court upholds the expansion denial. (Nashville Scene, 1/2023; Tennessee Lookout)
- Sept 1, 2023 The Tennessee Court of Appeals upholds the denial — the legal road ends here. (Tennessee Lookout, 9/1/2023)
- 2023 WM announces plans for a construction-debris recycling facility at the site. (wm.com facility listing; press)
- July 2026 Still operating on WM-arranged intake only. Nearing capacity, with no expansion effort on file per local sources — consistent with, though not yet stated in, press coverage. No closure date has been reported.
Why it matters
This is the county’s only active landfill, and it sits in a part of Nashville that has carried more than its share for decades. Of the 20 major waste, wastewater, corrections, and heavy-industrial burden sites documented with sources in Davidson County’s history, 12 — 60% — sit in the northwest quadrant, including this landfill and the county’s largest closed one. (County-wide documented-facility ledger, 7/5/2026)
Davidson County adopted the Jackson Law in May 2017, giving local government approval power over new landfill construction (Tennessee Tribune). Metro’s own Solid Waste Region Board history, A Brief History of Environmental Racism in Nashville (2021), documents how this area came to host these facilities.
Who’s involved
- Waste Management — owner/operator; has announced recycling-facility plans at the site.
- Metro Solid Waste Region Board — denied the expansion in 2021; sets regional solid-waste policy.
- Tennessee courts — Chancery Court and the Court of Appeals upheld the denial (concluded).
- Residents and neighborhood groups — decades of documented organizing on this corridor; the reason the two landfills on this page have different endings.
Sources
- Tennessee Lookout (Jan 12, 2022; Sept 1, 2023)
- WKRN (2022)
- Nashville Scene (Jan 2023)
- wm.com — Southern Services facility listing (2023)
- Metro SWRB, A Brief History of Environmental Racism in Nashville (2021)
- Capacity status: district knowledge, July 2026 — labeled “per local sources” until a press or permit citation exists