Nashville, TN – Last week, former Tennessee Representative Donna Barrett stood before the Tennessee State Advisory Task Force on Solid Waste with a message that resonated far beyond the walls of the meeting room. Her concern? The Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro, which she says has become a dumping ground not just for local refuse, but for trash from 27 other counties and six different states.
The task force itself was formed to tackle a growing and unavoidable question: where will Tennessee communities send their trash as existing landfills reach capacity and new ones face fierce opposition? That opposition often boils down to a familiar phrase—“not in my backyard.” But Barrett offered a sharp twist on that sentiment.
“When the landfill in your backyard is not just your landfill but twenty-seven other counties and six other states,” she said, “that is an obstacle to overcome. It’s not a matter of not in our backyard. It is a matter of not everybody else’s trash in our backyard.”…