Our state is “open for business” and even as an outing and conservation organization, Sierra Club Tennessee encourages smart development. But out-of-state corporations are exploiting our economic framework in ways that should concern us all. They arrive talking about economic development and opposition to regulation, but that's a red herring. What they're really seeking is the same thing many Tennesseans criticize big government for—removing local control from our communities.
I don’t understand why the Tennessee Chamber, one of the conference organizers, is holding the mic for out-of-state waste companies as they work to eliminate local say over landfill siting. At their June infrastructure summit, one speaker promoted the "economic opportunity" of rural landfills, greasing the wheels to overturn the Jackson Law—the legislation that gives counties and cities the right to make this choice. My question: why are the Recycling Coalition and TN Chamber rowing the boat for unsustainable out-of-state interests?
I'd like to know why they oppose local control when Chamber members in the tile and aluminum industries are begging to recover tariff-free materials being discarded every day. (See TEC's award-nominated film From Waste to Wages to see this in action.) We should be pushing for solutions - to divert materials from being buried. But the waste industry is making billions off the current system—so I know why they like it.
In Nashville where I live, waste companies get paid additional money to haul recyclables from your home and encourage single-source recycling. They then cite contamination and collect additional tipping fees to dump aluminum and plastic at landfills they own. Meanwhile, I've seen their stock prices double and stories about waste executives setting real estate records in Aspen – all on the backs of Tennessee families dealing with flies, odors, and contaminated groundwater from living next to these facilities.
Meanwhile, in rural areas, the Chamber touts economic benefits, but for whom? Not the local businesses hurt by odors and truck traffic. Not the property owners watching their values plummet while bearing increasing tax burdens. The only winners are out-of-state waste behemoths and the few landowners paid to let their soil be scraped away to cover trash.
Tennessee ranks 48th nationwide in recycling. The Tennessee Recycling Coalition is celebrating its 35th year—at what point do we need to evaluate where we are and how to take steps forward? After 35 years and ranking 48th, we need landfill diversion, instead of making it easier to dump more trash in rural communities. Especially when our state has invested millions in outdoor recreation and tourism! Sure, the Jackson Law makes it harder to start new landfills, but that's because we care about our communities, rivers, and parks. There are solutions—almost every other state, red or blue, is doing better.
I've talked with members of Rutherford Forward, neighbors from across the political spectrum fighting the Middle Point Landfill expansion. They tell me about birthday parties forced indoors when the wind shifts, about the highest levels of toxic chemicals found in the landfill's leachate. When they win—and I believe they will—the problem just moves to Maury County, Marshall County, then White County, and on and on.
This fight illustrates a statewide pattern where outside interests want to override local zoning for quarries, data centers, crypto mining, and now landfills. Smart economic development can continue to be heralded in Tennessee, but there's nothing smart about letting out-of-state corporations and politicians on their payroll override local decision-making. That goes against everything in our independent heritage.
I urge every county commission and city council to pass Jackson Law protections before they disappear. About half of our counties have, the rest are in the danger zone. Whether it's landfills, quarries, data centers, or crypto mining, Tennesseans shouldn't have to choose between local self-governance and being steamrolled by corporate interests.
I also urge citizens to speak to their legislators and let them know they don't want their local taxes to go up to pay for the extra 100 miles or more it costs to truck their trash, when companies in Tennessee need the materials we're throwing away.
Leading up to the sustainability conference, there was a panel on the agenda titled, Recycling: What Can We Do? It sat empty without assigned speakers or any description… and then the week of the conference, it just disappeared. I guess the Tennessee Recycling Coalition and TN Chamber needs our help to answer this very simple question.