Trash Pickup, Bulk Items and Disposal Rules in Mt. Juliet, TN

Trash pickup in Mt. Juliet is something each property owner arranges: no City of Mt. Juliet page says who collects household garbage, and City Code section 16-8 makes the owner of an occupied property responsible for removing its rubbish. What the City does run is brush collection, a chipper route and a grappling truck operated by Public Works. Almost everything else moves through Wilson County's system: seven convenience centers open daily to County residents, and the County landfill at 378 Dump Road in Lebanon, open on weekdays only. Mt. Juliet is its own city in Wilson County, so Metro Nashville's sites and rules do not apply here.

This guide gives each rule with the body that wrote it, in that body's own words where the wording matters: the County's per-visit allowance and refused items, the landfill's fees and its 2:30 pm check-in, the City's brush limits and burning rules, TDEC's household hazardous waste program, the routes for tires, paint, refrigerators, electronics and mattresses, and the donation outlets' own conditions. Hermitage, Old Hickory and Donelson sit across the line in Davidson County, where Metro Nashville's rules apply instead. The County's figures are laid out in tables on our Wilson County landfill and convenience center page, and published hauling prices, each with its survey and date, are on our junk removal cost page.

Who Collects Household Trash Inside the City of Mt. Juliet

No City of Mt. Juliet page says who collects household garbage. The City's Public Works Department describes six divisions: construction plans review, sewer maintenance, street maintenance, pretreatment, transportation, and water quality and stormwater. None of them is a sanitation or solid waste division, and the Public Works staff directory lists no refuse position. The City's FAQ has no trash question, its "Citizen Services" menu links to a burn permit and chipper route notices but not to garbage or recycling service, and the Code of Ordinances has no chapter on City garbage collection: Chapter 30, the utilities chapter, covers sewer service only. No City bulk item pickup or City recycling drop-off was found either.

The Code puts the job on the property owner. City Code section 16-8 says the owner of every occupied premises "shall supply approved covered containers for rubbish" and "shall be responsible for the removal of the rubbish," and section 14-36 requires premises to stay clear of refuse "except when stored for the purpose of collection." So each household, landlord or business arranges its own collection. No City list of approved haulers was found: a search of both City code books for the word "hauler" returned no section. If an owner leaves a condition unfixed for ten days after a notice, section 8-55 has the City remedy it at the owner's cost, and section 8-56 allows a lien on the property.

One City rule speaks to the collection trucks themselves. Section 16-22(b) bars anyone using vehicles for refuse and recycling collection from working between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on residentially zoned property, and during the same hours on commercially zoned property within 300 feet of residentially zoned property. Section 24-172 keeps household trash out of park trash cans. For everything a household trash service cannot take, the sections below follow each item to the County, State or charity site that accepts it, in that body's own words.

Wilson County's Seven Convenience Centers and Their Per-Visit Limits

A convenience center is one of Wilson County's drop-off sites for residents' household garbage and recycling, run by the County's Solid Waste Department. The County's page says "Convenience centers are open daily from 7:00AM-4:30PM," and a County news item of September 21, 2026 adds that they close on federal holidays. The seven are Watertown, Lebanon, Bairds Mill, Suggs Creek, Statesville, Martha and Norene. Suggs Creek, at 3519 Stewarts Ferry Pike, is the only one with a Mt. Juliet address; three have Lebanon addresses, two Watertown and one Norene. The County's pages give addresses but no distances, so choose by address.

Under "Rules & Regulations" the County lists: "Wilson County Residents Only (Must have a Wilson County vehicle tag)"; no box trucks or rental moving trucks; "NO Enclosed Trailers"; "NO Partial Loads"; "NO Commercial Loads"; "NO Scavenging"; "One Visit Per Day". The allowance for that visit is "10 Bags of Household Garbage" "And One of the Following:" "2 Pieces of Furniture (couch & chair)", "2 Appliances", "One 8x10 Piece of Carpet or Rug", "5 Pieces of Lumber (flooring included)", "20 Shingles", "2 Boxes of Miscellaneous Items in Open Top Dumpster" or "5 Pieces of Metal/Tin". The page does not define a partial load, and staff may tell you to carry a load on to the landfill.

Under "Unacceptable Items:" the County names "Tires/Automotive parts", "Paint", "Hazardous waste", "Yard waste/limbs/grass" and "Fireworks". Its recycling list for every center reads "Cardboard", "Aluminum", "Tin", "Metal", "Refrigerators/Freezers", "Batteries", "Plastic Milk Jugs", "Soda Bottles" and "Carpet Padding". Plastic means milk jugs and soda bottles, types 1 and 2, loose and out of the trash bag, and the County adds, "we do not recycle all plastic." The current page prints no fee; the County's July 2018 newsletter said drop-off "is free of charge for Wilson County residents." The page does not mention mattresses at all.

The Wilson County Landfill: Hours, Check-In, Fees and Tarps

The Wilson County Landfill is at 378 Dump Road in Lebanon, and the County prints its hours as "Monday - Friday 7 am - 3 pm," with no Saturday or Sunday hours. "All loads must be checked into the scale house 30 minutes prior to closing," and every vehicle must be out by 3 pm for scheduled maintenance, which works out to a 2:30 pm check-in. The weekday window matters because center staff can send a load on: the County's convenience center page says you "may be instructed to carry your load to the Landfill."

The County's rates, "effective November 1, 2022," are three: construction and demolition waste at $18 per cubic yard, shingles at $100 per ton, and "Residential Yardwaste(small)" at $5 per cubic yard, a size the County does not define. Payment is "Cash or local check only." No rate is printed for household garbage, tires, mattresses, furniture, appliances, concrete or stumps, and the landfill page does not say whether it takes them. It does take electronics: "Dispose of your television, old computers, computer package, microwave, etc. at the Wilson County Landfill," with no fee printed, and the County says the landfill recycles e-waste and metal.

The tarp rule is printed plainly: "All loads entering the landfill must be tarped." and "Loads that are not tarped will be turned away." State law covers the drive there as well. Tennessee Code section 39-14-507 requires a vehicle carrying litter to keep it enclosed or fully covered by a tarpaulin, with a narrower rule for a private, not-for-hire pickup whose load is secured, and section 55-7-109 requires loose material in an open bed to ride at least four inches below the bed walls. We tarp or cover every load before it leaves your property.

Brush, Leaves and Storm Debris: Chipper Route, Burning and FEMA Piles

The City of Mt. Juliet's Public Works Department collects brush from "all single family residential properties with frontage on a public street." The chipper route runs from Zone 1 in the south to Zone 8 in the north; a full pass "may take as long as 6 weeks" from April through October and is often under a week from November through March, and rain, snow or a significant storm suspends it. The City's limits: limbs under 15 feet long, none larger than 10 inches in diameter, placed within 10 feet of the road, off sidewalks and out of medians. It refuses vines and loose leaves, root balls, whole trees, lot clearing debris, metal or wire, brush tangled with plastic, and debris from commercial cutting.

The City's grappling truck, which it sends for the bigger piles in newer subdivisions, works every street in the city limits zone by zone, with main roads last because a flagger must follow it; gated subdivisions and private streets are not served. No City leaf pickup was found: the brush page refuses loose leaves and says nothing about bagged ones. The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture suggests using leaf litter as mulch or compost, and the County landfill takes small residential yard waste at $5 per cubic yard (effective November 1, 2022), while the convenience centers refuse yard waste, limbs and grass. When a pile is over the City's limits, our yard waste removal page covers getting it to the landfill.

Burning brush is legal only inside narrow rules. The Mt. Juliet Fire Department allows burning only of natural vegetation and untreated wood from the site itself, nothing brought in, either in a container such as a fire pit or burn barrel or in an open pile no more than 36 square feet and four feet high, with the open pile 50 feet or more from any structure. Fires are barred in wind of 10 miles per hour or more, need an adult in attendance and must be out before dark. The City's rules require an operational permit and say "There is no fee for burn permits." From October 15 to May 15 the State's Division of Forestry also requires a burn permit for debris burning. After a disaster, FEMA's fact sheet sorts curbside debris into six piles: electronics, appliances, hazardous material, vegetative material, construction material and household garbage.

Paint, Chemicals, Tires, Appliances and Other Items With Their Own Route

Oil-based paint goes to the County's paint program at the landfill, back "effective February 1, 2023": Wilson County residents only, twice per calendar year, no businesses, and in amounts of "One 5 gallon container" or "Five one gallon containers" or "Twenty one quart containers". Latex paint is refused there; the County says to dry it in the sun or with hardener or cat litter, after which it "can be thrown away with regular trash." Other household hazardous waste, from pesticides and pool chemicals to fluorescent lamps and needles, goes to TDEC's mobile collections. Wilson County's 2026 collection was held on October 3, 2026 at the James E. Ward Agricultural Center in Lebanon. TDEC posts its spring schedule by February and its fall schedule by August, and any Tennessee resident may take part in any county's event.

Tires are refused at the convenience centers, and TDEC lists the Wilson County Landfill as the county's waste tire collection site; whole tires may not be landfilled in Tennessee, and no current County page prints a tire limit or fee. TDEC says lead-acid batteries "cannot go into the trash" and can be recycled at almost all auto part stores and county convenience centers; TDEC adds that lithium batteries must stay out of trash and recycling containers, terminals taped, and that propane cylinders can be recycled through your solid waste department. Televisions, computers, printers and microwaves go to the Wilson County Landfill, which recycles e-waste, or to the firms in the County's E-Waste Recyclers directory.

Refrigerators and freezers are on the County's recycling list at every center, and one visit may include two appliances. Under EPA's Section 608 rules, the final person in the disposal chain, such as a scrap recycler or landfill, must make sure the refrigerant is recovered, and EPA tells owners not to cut refrigerant lines or remove compressors themselves. City Code section 16-21 requires the doors off any refrigerator left out of service on a property. Our appliance removal page follows an old refrigerator to a recycler that recovers the refrigerant. No Wilson County page we found mentions mattresses, and the Mattress Recycling Council runs programs in four states, not Tennessee; our mattress disposal page sets out the routes that do exist.

Donation Outlets, the Davidson County Line and Lebanon's City Services

Three donation outlets near Mt. Juliet publish their own rules. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville runs a Wilson County ReStore in Lebanon, takes donations Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and picks up large or heavy items from the ground floor at no charge; it takes appliances "7 years or younger," mattresses only "new in packaging," and only flat-screen, flat-back TVs. Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee lists a Mt. Juliet donation center and refuses mattresses, sleeper sofas, tube TVs and furniture "that is broken, damaged, or stained." The Salvation Army schedules pickups by ZIP code, lists mattresses and unbroken furniture, and refuses gas appliances and TVs older than 5 years. When an item meets one of these rules, we say so before we load it, so you can send it there instead.

Hermitage, Old Hickory and Donelson are in Davidson County, where Metro Nashville's rules apply, and Metro's four convenience centers are for Davidson County residents: "Residents must present their Tennessee driver's license showing they live in Davidson County," and Metro's electronics page refuses "Any electronic waste from out of county residents." The centers open Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A Davidson County resident's daily allowance at no charge is three bags of trash and one bulk item; mattresses cost $12 each, up to four a month, and tires with rims cost $5 each. Metro collects brush four times a year on 12 routes, and bulky items are drop-off only.

Lebanon residents have City services that no City of Mt. Juliet page describes. The City of Lebanon's Sanitation Department collects garbage on four 10-hour days a week, Tuesday through Friday, from one 95 gallon cart per residence issued after a $75 cart fee, and it picks up only trash in a City cart; construction debris, hazardous materials, motor oil, ashes and yard waste stay out. The City's Street Department runs a monthly chipper route by zone and a curbside leaf vacuum at peak leaf times, but turns away contractor waste, vacant properties and anything from outside Lebanon's city limits, and the City lists a yard waste drop-off. Lebanon's own page sends other items to the County's convenience centers.