Nashville officials stumped after learning 70% of the city’s trash is liquid

Visitors enjoy a tour in downtown Nashville. The city’s officials said excess liquid is overflowing garbage trucks, contaminating recyclables and creating headaches for sanitation crews - (iStock)

Nashville is known for pouring out the hits, but city officials say too much is being poured into the trash.

A surprising discovery found that about 70 percent of the waste collected from public trash cans in downtown Nashville is actually liquid, creating an unexpected headache for sanitation crews and city leaders.

The soggy problem came to light during a recent meeting of Metro Public Works' Waste Commission, where officials said discarded drinks, melted ice and other liquids are overflowing garbage trucks, contaminating recyclable materials and making waste collection far more difficult than it should be, according to WKRN.

Commission members said they believe the issue is unique to Nashville. Similar entertainment districts, in cities like New Orleans and Las Vegas, have not reported nearly the same volume of liquid waste.

"I'm assuming it's because people are throwing away bottles that still have booze, and so there's nowhere for that to go," one commission member said during the meeting, the outlet reports.

Another suggested that melted ice is likely a major culprit.

"Ice is probably a large portion of it. They just dump the ice out," the member said. "It is an interesting problem. We're trying to figure out ways to deal with it."

Beyond creating heavier trash bins, the excess liquid causes garbage trucks to leak during collection and soaks recyclable materials, making them harder or even impossible to recycle.

Officials are considering adding drainage holes to downtown trash cans to let liquids drain before collection (Getty Images)

Now, officials are exploring a simple fix. The Waste Commission is considering adding drainage holes to downtown trash cans so liquids can flow into the wastewater system before garbage is collected, WKRN reports. City leaders hope the change would lighten loads for sanitation crews, prevent trucks from overflowing and improve recycling efforts, though the proposal is still under review.

Metro Waste Services provides service to about 150,000 households each week and empties over 1 million trash containers monthly.

The findings come four years after the Nashville Downtown Partnership said its Clean and Safe team hauled more than 602,000 pounds of trash from downtown Broadway garbage cans.

The Independent has contacted Metro Waste Services and Metro Public Works' Waste Commission for more information.