Nashville, Tennessee Trash Pickup Schedule & Recycling Rules

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Nashville trash pickup: collection days, recycling and bulk waste rules.

Nashville trash pickup inside the Urban Services District is done by Metro’s Nashville Department of Waste Services. Trash goes weekly in the brown cart and recycling every other week on the same weekday, Tuesday through Friday. Look up your day and your A or B recycling week in the Nashville Waste and Recycling app or on the city’s lookup. What trips people up: a holiday moves pickup to the Monday before it, not the day after.

• Who collects: Nashville Department of Waste Services, for single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes in the Urban Services District; General Services District homes and apartment complexes use a private hauler
• Your pickup day: depends on your address, Tuesday to Friday; Collection Calendar and Waste Wizard ↗ or the Nashville Waste and Recycling app
• Holiday changes: a Tuesday to Friday holiday moves only that day’s pickup to the Monday of the same week; New Collection Schedule ↗
• Missed pickup: hubNashville: missed trash ↗ or missed recycling ↗
• Contact: hubNashville, 311 or 615-862-5000; where to take an item: 615-924-2633
• Official website: Nashville Department of Waste Services ↗

Photo: Nashville skyline viewed from Fort Negley. Jschnake, 2024-06-10. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source. Resized for web.

Nashville trash and recycling pickup schedule

Since February 2, 2026, Metro routes run Tuesday through Friday on four 10-hour days; Mondays are for truck maintenance, training and holiday makeup routes. Trash and recycling share one weekday.

• Carts go to the curb or alley by 6 a.m., lid arrow toward the street. Crews come 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Take carts in by 7 p.m. and store them out of view from the street (Metro Code 10.20.110, subsection c).
• Keep carts 4 feet from cars, mailboxes, poles and each other, with 15 feet of clearance under wires and limbs.
• Bag all trash; never bag recycling. Nothing outside the cart is taken.
• Recycling delayed by weather is picked up the following Saturday.
• Residents with a permanent disability who cannot move a cart, and live alone or with someone also disabled, can apply on hubNashville for free backdoor pickup, with an ID and a doctor’s statement.

General Services District homes, apartment complexes anywhere in Davidson County and businesses needing more service hire a private hauler or ask the property manager; every private hauler must offer recycling. Metro can empty trash dumpsters at complexes inside the Urban Services District if the owner asks.

What goes in the Nashville recycling cart

Metro’s Recycle Right list ↗ sets what goes in the cart; the app’s Waste Wizard looks up single items.

• Yes: paper, newspaper, magazines, mail, food and drink cartons; flattened cardboard, paper towel rolls, cereal and tissue boxes; food and drink cans; plastic drink bottles, milk and juice jugs, food jars, and kitchen, laundry and bath bottles and jugs.
• How: clean, empty, dry and loose. Caps stay on or go in the trash.
• No glass at the curb. Glass goes to a drop-off site or convenience center.
• No: plastic bags, wrap or bubble wrap; plastic that is not a bottle, jar or jug (takeout containers, foam, cups, tubs); hoses, wires and electronics; yard waste; clothing; food or liquid.

Cardboard is banned from the trash (Metro Code 10.20.095). Greasy pizza boxes are not on the cart list but go, torn to fit, in the convenience centers’ compost bins. Rigid foam that snaps when bent (coolers, packing blocks, meat trays, egg cartons, cups, takeout boxes) goes free to the East Convenience Center.

Drop-off recycling sites take glass and the cart items, sorted into labeled bins:

Yard waste and food scraps

Brush, leaves and grass are banned from trash carts. The Nashville Department of Transportation (NDOT), not Waste Services, collects them from single-family homes in both service districts, four times a year on 12 area routes. Dates are route start dates; a route takes one to three weeks. Find your area on the 2026-2027 brush schedule ↗ or in the app.

• Set brush out before the start date where your garbage goes, within reach of the truck’s arm.
• Leaves and grass in biodegradable paper bags only. Limbs up to 4 inches thick and 12 feet long; no lumber or trash.
• No pickup on private streets or in satellite cities such as Belle Meade, Berry Hill and Forest Hills.

Between rounds, brush goes free (trailers pay) to the Living Earth yards at 1511 Elm Hill Pike and 6401 Centennial Boulevard; call 615-730-7238 for hours.

Metro has no curbside food scraps route. Food scraps, soiled paper and BPI-certified compostables go free to the compost bins at all four convenience centers. A backyard compost bin costs $50 at the East Convenience Center.

Each winter after Christmas, NDOT and Metro Parks run a free Christmas tree drop-off at city parks and the Living Earth yards, announced in an NDOT news release ↗. Strip all decorations. Brush crews also take trees on their regular round; artificial trees go to a convenience center.

Bulk trash pickup in Nashville

Waste Services sends bulky items to its convenience centers. For curbside removal, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office picks them up on request: call 615-880-3897.

• The homeowner or tenant calls with the item list, address, phone number and resident’s name.
• Items go at the front curb by 6:30 a.m. on the date given; crews then have up to seven business days.
• No pickup on private property, private roads or gated communities; complex residents use the main entrance curb.
• Taken: furniture, mattresses and box springs, carpets, appliances including refrigerators and water heaters, TVs, lawn mowers emptied of gas and oil, lumber, fencing and construction debris.
• Refused: tires, motor oil, chemicals, batteries, glass and mirrors, drywall, roofing, propane tanks, paint cans, dirt, rocks and concrete, bagged items and brush.

Or haul it to a convenience center. One bulk item and three bags of trash are free per day, as is one scrap metal item, such as an appliance, or three bags of scrap metal. Mattresses and box springs cost $12 each, up to four a month, at East, Ezell Pike and Omohundro. Other loads cost $10 under 1 cubic yard or $20 a cubic yard up to 8; small do-it-yourself construction loads cost $20 at Omohundro only.

Nashville holiday trash schedule

When a collection holiday falls Tuesday through Friday, only that day’s pickup moves to the Monday of the same week; everyone else keeps their day. A Monday holiday changes nothing. The printed 2026 calendars and the app keep regular pickup on the day after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve, though both are Metro holidays. The convenience centers close on every Metro holiday.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

Household hazardous waste goes free to the East or Ezell Pike Convenience Center, up to 15 gallons or 100 pounds per household a month, for Davidson County residents only. Keep items in original containers, packed in boxes lined with newspaper.

• Taken: oil-based paint, stain and thinner; gasoline, motor oil and antifreeze; pesticides and pool chemicals; bleach and cleaners; rechargeable and car batteries; fluorescent tubes and CFLs; mercury thermometers; cooking grease (also at Omohundro).
• Refused: latex paint, propane tanks, ammunition, explosives, medical waste, medications and business waste.

Dry out latex paint with the lid off or with cat litter, then put it in the trash. Sharps go in the trash in a red sharps container or a capped two-liter bottle. Medications go to take-back containers at Metro police precincts, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. TDEC also runs mobile HHW collections ↗ each spring and fall, open to any Tennessee resident.

Electronics are banned from the trash. Up to 100 pounds a day go free to East, Ezell Pike or Omohundro, with one computer system a month and TVs up to 80 inches wide.

The four convenience centers are open Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed on Metro holidays. Bring a Tennessee driver’s license with a Davidson County address and unload your own load; no commercial vehicles. Cash (not at Omohundro), checks and cards are accepted; cards carry a 2.8% fee, $1.95 minimum.

• Anderson Lane Convenience Center, 939A Anderson Ln, Madison, TN 37115. Trash, recycling with glass, food scraps and bulk items; no cargo vans or trailers for volume loads.
• East Convenience Center, 943A Doctor Richard G. Adams Dr, Nashville, TN 37207. Adds household hazardous waste, electronics, tires, mattresses, foam and compost bin sales.
• Ezell Pike Convenience Center, 3254 Ezell Pk, Nashville, TN 37211. Adds household hazardous waste, electronics, tires and mattresses.
• Omohundro Convenience Center, 1019 Omohundro Pl, Nashville, TN 37210. Adds electronics, mattresses, cooking grease and small construction loads. No cash.

The centers refuse asbestos, brick, concrete, dirt, rock, brush and leaves, car parts other than tires, fireworks, gas tanks, pallets and roofing shingles.

Fees and billing

Curbside service is paid through property tax. The Davidson County Property Assessor says the Urban Services District tax covers garbage pickup, while General Services District owners pay for it themselves. The “Tax Jurisdiction” box on your assessment notice says USD, GSD or satellite city.

• A second trash cart costs $65; up to two recycling carts are free.
• A lost, stolen or damaged cart is replaced at the owner’s cost, $65 (Metro Code 10.20.110, subsection a).

Missed pickup, damaged carts and new carts

Report problems on hubNashville ↗, in the hubNashville app, at 311 or at 615-862-5000. Pick the request type:

• Missed Pickup - Trash Cart Service for a missed trash cart, curbside or backdoor, and Missed Pickup - Recycle Cart Service for a missed recycling cart.
• Cart Service for an extra cart, a damaged or stolen cart, or a cart for a home that is not new construction.
• New Service / Activate Service for a newly built home.
• Missing Trash Cart when a cart fell into the truck.

Set-out rules and fines

• Breaking Metro’s waste rules can bring a fine of up to $50 for each day the violation continues (Metro Code 10.20.090).
• Under Waste Services policy, a cart left in the street after 7 p.m. can draw a written warning.
• Trash outside an approved cart can draw a written warning; from the third violation, a court citation plus clean-up and administrative costs.
• Yard waste, corrugated cardboard and electronics are banned from trash containers (Metro Code 10.20.095).

Materials with their own rules

• Household hazardous waste: free at East and Ezell Pike.
• Lithium-ion batteries: rechargeable batteries go to the hazardous waste or electronics drop-off, never the cart.
• Paint: oil-based to East or Ezell Pike; latex dried out and trashed.
• Mattresses: Sheriff’s curbside pickup or $12 at a convenience center.
• Pizza boxes: greasy boxes go in the convenience centers’ compost bins.
• Christmas trees: winter drop-off sites or your brush round.
• Tires: four a month at East or Ezell Pike; free without rims, $5 each with rims.
• Aerosol cans and propane tanks: Metro’s centers and the Sheriff’s pickup refuse propane and gas tanks.

More in Tennessee

• Tennessee trash and recycling rules
• Knoxville trash pickup
• Nashville’s Tuesday-Friday pickup still stands after the 2026 change
• Holiday changes by city
• Bulk pickup rules by city
• Missed pickup contacts by city
• Drop-off locations by city