Cookeville’s Recycling Center on South Jefferson Avenue will permanently close, effective Monday.
Cookeville Public Works Director Mary Beth Elrod said the South Jefferson Avenue recycling center is the only recycling center that is not located on city-owned property. Elrod said both the property owner and the city made the initial move to close the recycling center.
“We’ve seen that this recycling center has been kind of affected by the T-DOT road expansion, access into this has been difficult, and then the upkeep and maintenance of this center, located on private property, has also been difficult for the city of Cookeville and the private property owner themselves,” Elrod said.
Elrod said the city will build a new recycling center on West Davis Road as part of the construction of the expansion of the energy department headquarters. Elrod said for the time being, recyclers can use alternative recycling locations located at 760 Whitson Avenue and 335 East Stevens Street.
“It will temporarily inconvenience those, they’ll have to drive farther into town to make it to the Whitson Avenue location or to the Stevens location, but hopefully we will have this relocation back to West Davis pretty quickly,” Elrod said.
Elrod said she estimates it will take six months to a year to get the West Davis Road recycling center up and functioning.
Elrod said the private property owner was gracious enough to let the city house a recycling center on the property for the past few years.
