Smyrna, TN Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Smyrna's recycling provisions sit in two chapters of the Municipal Code, and together they govern who can handle deposited materials and how the businesses that process them operate.

Title 11, Chapter 10, Recyclable Materials, contains one section, § 11-1001. It is unlawful for any person to steal, pilfer, or rummage through materials deposited in a recyclable material collection facility. The word "rummage" matters: going through deposited items is covered even when nothing is carried away. Title 17, Refuse, cross-references this chapter for recyclable materials.

Title 13, Chapter 3, Junkyards, reaches the businesses. The definition of junkyard includes scrap metal processors, used auto parts yards, garbage dumps, sanitary landfills, and recycling centers. A recycling center is an establishment, place of business, facility, or building maintained, operated, or used for the storing, keeping, buying, or selling of newspaper or used food or beverage containers or plastic containers for the purpose of converting such items into a usable product.

Because a recycling center is a junkyard, the chapter's requirements apply to it. Section 13-302 requires every junkyard to be screened or removed from view by its owner or operator. Section 13-304 requires screening that conceals the junkyard year-round, rejects see-through screens, and allows open entrances only where gates capable of concealing the materials when closed are installed. Those gates must remain closed from sundown to sunrise. Under § 13-305, a damaged screen must be replaced, and if the operator has not replaced it within 30 days the town replaces it and requires payment on demand. Section 13-306 prohibits using highway right-of-way for any part of a junkyard, including temporary storage.

Section 13-308 makes it unlawful to operate a junkyard in the town without a junkyard control permit issued by the town. Permits are valid for the fiscal year, July 1 through June 30, and are renewed each year. The fee is set by the Town Council in the fee schedule and is not subject to proration or refund. A permit is valid only for its holder and for the location it was issued for. The codes enforcement and inspection division enforces the chapter under § 13-309.