When is my trash day in Nashville?

Look your address up in the Nashville Waste and Recycling app or Metro’s Waste Wizard, because pickup days changed in February 2026. Homes in the Urban Services District get trash every week and recycling every other week, and the carts need to be at the curb by 6 a.m.

Does Nashville recycle glass?

Not at the curb; Metro’s recycling carts take no glass at all. Clean, empty bottles and jars are accepted at all four Metro convenience centers and by the drop-off recycling program, and Waste Services asks you to call 615-862-5000 to be sure a given drop-off site takes them.

When is brush pickup in Davidson County?

NDOT collects brush four times a year, working through 12 routes, each of which usually takes one to three weeks. The date your route starts is marked with a yellow dot in the Waste Wizard, and no call is needed, whether you live in the Urban or the General Services District.

How do I get rid of a mattress in Nashville?

Drive it to a Metro convenience center at Anderson Lane, East, Ezell Pike or Omohundro, open Tuesday to Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Each mattress or box spring costs $12, four a month at most, and you need a Tennessee driver’s license that shows a Davidson County address.

Is trash pickup delayed for Thanksgiving in Nashville?

Only for Thursday routes: with Thanksgiving on November 26, Metro picks those homes up on Monday, November 30, and Friday the 27th stays on schedule. Metro says the holiday days may still change in 2026, so check the app that week.

What if I live outside the Urban Services District?

Metro doesn’t collect at single-family homes in the General Services District, so you sign up with a private hauler, which has to offer you a recycling option. NDOT still collects your brush, and the Metro convenience centers serve any Davidson County resident with a matching driver’s license.

Nashville Trash Pickup, Recycling and Brush Guide

Trash and recycling By Terry McCarthy, publisher of Nashville Home Pros Magazine · October 27, 2026 · 10 min read

A trash cart and a recycling cart at the curb of a brick ranch house, a pile of cut branches beside them

In Davidson County, two houses a few miles apart can have nothing in common on trash day. Inside the Urban Services District, Metro’s trucks empty the carts every week; outside it, the homeowner hires a private hauler. Metro’s brush trucks come around four times a year, Brentwood’s once a month. And a glass jar that Rutherford County’s centers take with the rest of the recycling has no place in a Metro cart. Here is what each city and county page says, linked so you can check it.

Who picks up in Davidson County

The Nashville Department of Waste Services collects trash and recycling at single-family homes in the Urban Services District (USD), and that includes duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes. In the General Services District (GSD), the rest of the county, Metro doesn’t collect at the curb, and its page tells residents to contact their property manager or a private hauler.

Hiring a hauler doesn’t mean giving up recycling. Metro’s Recycle Right page says a private hauler must offer a recycling option to its trash customers, so ask for it when you sign up.

To find your pickup day, use the Nashville Waste and Recycling app, for iPhone and Android (Waste Services’ app page). Questions go to Waste Services at 615-862-5000, or to Metro’s 311 line and hubNashville.

Trash day at the curb

In the USD, trash goes every week and recycling every other week. The pickup days changed in February 2026, so a calendar from before then may be wrong. The curbside page sets the rules for the carts:

at the curb by 6 a.m., the arrow on the lid facing the street or alley; trucks run from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.;
back in by 7 p.m. on pickup day, and kept out of sight of the street after collection (Metro Code 10.20.110c);
4 feet from any other cart or anything that doesn’t move, such as a car, a mailbox or a utility pole, and 15 feet clear of wires, tree limbs and building overhangs;
trash bagged inside the cart, recycling loose; anything left beside a cart stays there.

Each address gets one brown trash cart. A second one costs $65.00, up to two recycling carts are free, and a lost, stolen or broken-beyond-repair cart is $65.00 to replace (Metro Code 10.20.110a). Carts are requested through hubNashville.

The trash cart has its own exclusions, by Metro’s trash guidelines: no yard waste, cardboard, construction debris, electronics, paint or chemicals. Construction waste from a home project goes out with a private hauler or the contractor, and a small do-it-yourself load can go to the Omohundro convenience center.

The recycling cart, and glass

Everything in Metro’s recycling cart goes in clean, empty, dry and loose (Nashville Waste Services). It takes:

Paper, newspaper, magazines and mail
Food and beverage cartons
Corrugated cardboard, flattened, and cereal and tissue boxes
Toilet paper and paper towel rolls
Food and beverage cans
Plastic bottles, jars and jugs, with the caps on or thrown away

It does not take:

Glass of any kind
Recyclables in a bag, plastic bags, plastic wrap and bubble wrap
Other plastics: takeout containers, Styrofoam, cups and tubs
Hoses, wires, chains and electronics
Yard waste, clothing and linens
Food or liquid

Glass bottles and jars go to a drop-off instead. All four of Metro’s convenience centers take glass, and the drop-off recycling program accepts clean, empty, dry bottles and jars. The hours page doesn’t say every drop-off site takes glass and suggests calling 615-862-5000 before you go. The sites:

WeGo Bellevue Park and Ride, 7650 Coley Davis Rd: daily, 24 hours
William Whitfield Park, 5150 Edmondson Pk: Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon
Hillsboro High School, 3812 Hillsboro Pk: daily, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (5 p.m. in winter)
Joelton Middle School, 3500 Old Clarksville Pk: 24 hours
Lakewood City Hall, 3401 Old Hickory Blvd, Old Hickory: 24 hours
McGavock High School, 3150 McGavock Pk: 24 hours
Whites Creek High School, 7277 Old Hickory Blvd: 24 hours

A building that uses dumpsters gets no recycling carts from Metro.

The 2026 holiday days

Metro’s 2026 schedule moves one route for each holiday left this year, and every other day runs as usual (Nashville Waste Services):

Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11. Wednesday routes are collected Monday, November 9.
Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26. Thursday routes are collected Monday, November 30. Friday, November 27, runs as usual.
Christmas, Friday, December 25. Friday routes are collected Monday, December 28. Thursday, December 24, runs as usual.
New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1, 2027. Friday routes are collected Monday, January 4, 2027.

The app page warns that holiday pickup days may still change before the year is out, so look at the app the week of the holiday.

Brush and leaves

Brush in Davidson County is NDOT’s job, not Waste Services’, and it reaches single-family homes in both the USD and the GSD. NDOT works 12 routes in turn, four times a year, and one route usually takes one to three weeks. There is nothing to request: your route’s start date is in the Nashville Waste Wizard, marked with a yellow dot. NDOT doesn’t collect on private streets or in the satellite cities, such as Forest Hills, Berry Hill and Belle Meade.

What the truck takes:

limbs and branches up to 4 inches across and 12 feet long;
stumps up to 8 inches across and 12 to 18 feet long, with no dirt or root ball;
bamboo no longer than 8 feet;
leaves and grass clippings in biodegradable paper bags, never plastic.

The pile can be any height, as long as the truck’s arm can reach it. Stack the pieces end to end or on top of each other, and keep the pile off mailboxes, trees, fences, poles and guardrails. NDOT leaves behind lumber, household trash or debris mixed into the pile, yard waste in carts, oversized limbs, and brush cut by a commercial tree or landscaping service.

Between rounds, Davidson County residents can take brush to Living Earth free at 1511 Elm Hill Pike or 6401 Centennial Boulevard; a trailer is charged a fee. Living Earth’s number on NDOT’s page is 615-730-7238.

Mattresses, furniture and tires

Metro describes no curbside bulk pickup. Anything too big for the cart goes to a convenience center (Waste Services’ bulky item page). The four are open Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and closed on Metro holidays (Nashville Waste Services):

Anderson Lane, 939A Anderson Ln, Madison 37115
East, 943A Doctor Richard G. Adams Dr, Nashville 37207
Ezell Pike, 3254 Ezell Pk, Nashville 37211
Omohundro, 1019 Omohundro Pl, Nashville 37210

Bring a Tennessee driver’s license that shows a Davidson County address. Once a day, a center takes three bags of trash (30 gallons each at most) and one bulk item free; mattresses, tires with rims and construction material don’t count as that free item (Nashville Waste Services).

Mattresses and box springs: $12 each, up to four a month.
Furniture: one bulk item free.
Tires: without rims, up to four a month free, at East and Ezell Pike only; with rims, $5 each.
Scrap metal: one bulk item or up to three trash bags free.
Do-it-yourself construction and demolition: Omohundro only.

Paying by card adds a fee, which Metro’s page gives as “2.8% fee with a minimum of $1.95.” The centers’ number is 615-924-2633.

Paint, chemicals and electronics

Gasoline, bleach and oil-based paint go to household hazardous waste, not the cart (Metro’s trash guidelines). Only East and Ezell Pike take it, free, up to 15 gallons or 100 pounds.

Electronics go to East, Ezell Pike or Omohundro, free (Metro’s e-waste page): phones, computers, printers, monitors, TVs no wider than 80 inches, tablets, microwaves and rechargeable batteries among them. The limit is 100 pounds a day and one computer system a month, with a valid Davidson County ID. Business loads and residents of other counties are turned away.

The cities and counties around it

Outside Davidson County, each city and county sets its own rules. These are the ones whose pages we read for this guide.

Brentwood

Residents contract a hauler themselves; the city’s trash page names Republic Services, Waste Management, GoRecycles and Brentwood Disposal, and curbside recycling comes through them. The city’s brush program runs once a month all year on a four-week rotation: have the pile out by Sunday evening of your week, any height, no more than 10 feet from the curb, with leaves and clippings in paper bags. Piles left by a contractor aren’t collected. Christmas trees are picked up from the day after Christmas into mid-January. The brush program’s number is (615) 371-0060.

Hendersonville

Waste Pro collects under contract with the city, weekly, Monday through Friday, out by 6:00 a.m. Standard service is two cans (up to 96 gallons), two bags and two bulk items. A holiday on your collection day pushes pickup back one day. On recycling the page is plain: “The City of Hendersonville does not offer curbside collection or drop-off recycling at this time.” Missed pickups: 615-822-1016.

Gallatin

Public Works Environmental Services offers a monthly bulk pickup, usually the second Friday, for city trash customers who send in the Bulk Request Form (city page; 615-452-2147). The brush trucks come about every 4 to 6 weeks on no set schedule. One trailer load, up to 20 cubic yards, is free each cycle; another trailer is $75, and non-customers pay $150. Limbs and logs can be 15 feet long at most, and leaves go in paper bags under 40 pounds, out by 7:00 a.m.

Mt. Juliet

Public Works drives the brush route from Zone 1 in the south to Zone 8 in the north, and from April to October a route can take up to six weeks. Limbs have to be under 15 feet long and no more than 10 inches across, piled within 10 feet of the road, with no vines, loose leaves or root balls. Questions: 615-773-7957.

Lebanon

The city’s own Sanitation Department picks up trash Tuesday through Friday on each home’s day: out by 6:00 a.m. with 5 feet clear on every side, and in by 7:00 p.m. Recycling comes twice a month for homes that sign up online, and the 95-gallon cart is $75. New residents get one pickup of moving boxes. Sanitation doesn’t take yard waste; that’s the Street Department, 615-444-0825 ext. 5100. Sanitation: 615-466-5008.

Spring Hill

Waste Management collects trash weekly and recycling every other week, by address (city page; WM at (866) 909-4458). Per the city, “They will not pick up barrels or brush”: brush and bulky waste are city services.

Smyrna

The town’s brush service is for homes only, and needs no call. Put the brush within 5 feet of the road and at least 2 feet behind any sidewalk; limbs up to 8 inches across and 6 feet long; a pile no more than 10 feet long, 10 feet deep and 5 feet tall. Leaves go in brown paper bags only. Public Works: (615) 459-9766.

La Vergne

The city’s page sends recycling to the Rutherford County Recycling Center, which takes aluminum, scrap metal, newspaper, cardboard, plastic, magazines, glass and carpet pads (615-898-7739). Brush and yard waste go to the Rutherford County Landfill or the Murfreesboro Mulch Facility at no charge.

The county convenience centers

Williamson County runs 11 convenience centers: Bethesda, College Grove, Fairview, Grassland, Hillsboro, Nolensville, Southall, Thompson’s Station, Trinity, Wilson Pike (recycling only) and the Landfill center at 5750 Pinewood Road. Since July 6, 2026 they’re open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and weekends 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., free to county residents with a valid physical driver’s license. Most take household garbage, brush (3 feet or less), construction debris, metal, cans, plastic bottles and jugs, glass, paper, cardboard (in the cardboard container only) and used motor oil. Commercial waste is refused, and waste from a rental property counts as commercial. Landfill disposal stopped being free on May 4, 2026. (615) 790-0742.

Rutherford County’s centers open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; on Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., they take household garbage only, and they’re closed Monday and Thursday. Every location takes single-stream recycling, glass included, in the large glass containers, and all but Haley Road take bulk metal. Electronics, oil-based paint and fluorescent bulbs go to the Leanna center. 615-898-7739.

Wilson County’s centers open daily, 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., for residents with a Wilson County vehicle tag, one visit a day: 10 bags of household garbage plus one extra from the county’s list, such as two pieces of furniture or two appliances. They don’t take tires or car parts, paint, hazardous waste, yard waste, limbs, grass or fireworks.

Every other town

Franklin, Murfreesboro and the rest of the magazine’s towns set their own pickup days, recycling and brush rules, and this guide doesn’t cover them yet. Look up your city’s public works or sanitation page, or your county’s if you live outside a city, before you put anything at the curb.

Sources

Schedules and rules change. Every fact in this trash and recycling guide is linked to the page it comes from, read on October 27, 2026; check that page before you rely on it, and tell us if it has moved: send us a note.

Trash day, recycling and the brush pile