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Hamblen County Mayor Bill Brittain visited with Rotary of Morristown to discuss a new initiative regarding trash pickup in the county.

“This is a new initiative taken on by the county commission to continue to make our community as pretty as it can be,” Brittain said. “I am biased because I was born here and raised my kids here and I believe that Hamblen County is one of the greatest communities in the state.

“We have a great reputation across the state and I hear it every time I go to a state meeting. We are a community that people are envious of.”

In wanting to maintain the county’s beauty and clean up the streets, Brittain explained that the county commission went to solve the area’s trash problem.

“Months ago the county commission started looking at trash and trash that sit on the side of the road,” he said. “What we have found is that the county is the only one in the state that has door to door garbage, recycling and bulk waste pick up. What we have seen in the past few years is that it’s being abused.

“Especially with our bulk waste it’s causing our neighborhoods to be junked up, and a few months ago the county commission started working to clean our neighborhoods up.”

After months of discussion with their constituents and other counties, the commission voted on a plan to alleviate the problem.

“Starting last week we started implementing last week regarding bulk waste pick up,” Brittain said. “There’s a reason for the rules and we’re trying to make the sanitation department more efficient.”

Among the regulations includes no longer picking up construction waste at the curbside or in the ditch line.

“We have several contractors in the county who will do a job at one end of the county and contract with their customers to haul off any trash and what they do is go home and dump that trash in front of their house for the county to pick up,” Brittain said. “We have garbage crews who can identify those houses who abuse pick up.

“So as of last week, we no longer pick up construction waste.”

“To make garbage pickup more efficient we are asking homeowners to place all the garbage in the county supplied carts and not set it on the side of the road,” he said. “Part of the reason for that is we have many people who scavenge through garbage and will tear bags apart to get inside and will not put the trash back in the bags and leave the junk out on the side of the road.”

Brittain also explained a new regulation that asks all county residents to separate bulk waste, tree trimmings and household waste.

“What we’re asking is that property owners separate brush from their bulk waste and household garbage so if you have all three you would have 3 different piles,” he said. “The reason for this is so we can speed up our process of picking up debris by concentrating a truck just on brush and then one for bulk waste.

“By picking up those separately then we can take the brush to the burn pit and it not be buried and that saves us money than having to take that to the landfill.”

Another regulation that is now enforced is that all renters/landlords are responsible for disposing of materials left at a rental property.

“An issue we are having is with rental properties and when a tenant moves out the -landlord will move all leftover items or garbage being placed on the side of the road. With the new rules property owners and landlords are responsible for the leftover trash,” Brittain said.

Brittain began to share photos of properties in the county who have abused services in the past and explained what will and won’t be picked up by the sanitation department.

“We had a mobile home that was demolished and the debris was placed on the side of the road. The property of the junk is across the street from the landfill,” he said.

He explained that part of the reason homeowners don’t take garbage to the landfill is due to tipping fees, but explained that each home can dispose of 6,000 pounds of trash before having to be subjected to extra fees.

“Part of the reason many people don’t take this trash to the landfill is not only labor reasons but also because of the cost,” Brittain said. “The landfill has a policy that was implemented five years ago where each property has a 3 ton limit on what they can bring to the landfill and after that they are charged $50 per ton.”

As Brittain closed he said that with the new regulations, this may open up the possibility for the sanitation department to create a bulk waste pick up schedule.

“One of the biggest complaints we have is ‘this has been sitting on the side of the road for six weeks’ and the reason for that is because we can’t have a regular pick up schedule when people abuse our services,” he said. “Part of the county commission chose not to continue picking up construction waste so we can have a regular bulk waste pick up schedule. Every two or three weeks you can expect the truck to come by.”

A warning sign will be placed on the property that violated the regulation before a citation is issued.

Penalties for violations start at $50 a day and start the date the citation is issued by codes enforcement officer or law enforcement

All bulk waste pick up regulations can be found on Hamblen County’s Facebook page and on its website.