Nashville Waste Services transitions entire household collection route to digital system
With GPS routing and a completely digital schedule, 97,000 households were successfully transitioned from the decades-old paper-based system
Nashville Waste Services (NWS) has successfully executed the most significant operational transformation in its history, modernizing service delivery for its entire 144,000-household customer base. The centrepiece of the overhaul involved moving 97,000 households to new collection days and retiring decades-old paper maps in favour of fully digital, tablet-based operations. This project, which began February 3, marks the first full optimization of Nashville residential waste routes in more than 10 years, creating 192 NWS-operated routes as part of a citywide network of 300+ weekly collection routes.
The transition involved a two-part strategy: the first was a total rebuild of the department's routing infrastructure and the second was a 13-week public information campaign. This collaborative effort successfully moved the service days for 97,000 households (about two-thirds of the city's residential customer base) while simultaneously educating the entire city on the shift to a new collection schedule. The result is Nashville's most modern, data-driven waste operation — and its most reliable.
The overhaul, resulting in an immediate service success rate of over 99.6 percent in the first four weeks of transition, also shifted collections teams from a five-day schedule to four ten-hour workdays, Tuesday through Friday. Mondays are now dedicated to fleet maintenance and vehicle inspections, holiday makeup collections, and specialized training, with all of this work completed in just eight months.
Overhauling Nashville's outdated paper-based sytem with new digital tools
For decades, Nashville's residential waste routes relied on paper maps, which means that critical knowledge of the routes was held primarily by individual drivers and smaller teams. In mid-2025, NWS equipped more than 100 trucks with live tablets and GPS routing, turning the department into a modern logistics operation.
Alongside the digital overhaul, NWS also insourced nearly 50,000 households previously serviced by outside contractors, bringing those routes under direct Metro management. The move is projected to save Nashville $5.5 million annually while giving the department greater operational control and consistency of service.
"We didn't just change the schedule; we built a smarter routing system that grows with the city," said Tracey Thurman, director of Nashville Waste Services. "By moving from paper maps to a digital platform, we can now adjust our routes as neighbourhoods change and density increases. We are finally able to plan for the city's growth instead of just reacting to it."
Winter Storm Fern forced the new collection to divert without pausing
The system's true test came during the February 2 launch week, which coincided with Winter Storm Fern, and briefly stopped waste collection citywide. While the department worked through interrupted service dates from the previous week, the transition to the new Tuesday-Friday schedule remained stable.
Despite the weather, resident participation was high, with most households successfully setting out their carts on their new days.
The successful first phase of the initative includes:
- High participation rates: Despite moving 97,000 households to a new collection day during a storm recovery period, trash set-out rates reached 80 percent on day one and held through the first weeks of the new schedule, proving the effectiveness of the 13-week outreach effort.
- Logistical recovery: When Winter Storm Fern disrupted the launch week, routing software allowed supervisors to move trucks in real-time to areas that needed them most — maintaining service continuity throughout the recovery.
- Public awareness: Residents accessed the new schedule tools 492,000 times and made 150,000 unique visits to the department's website during the 60-day launch window.
With the new routes now stable, the department has replaced manual guesswork with a reliable, digital model that can scale as fast as Nashville itself.
"The success of this launch proves that high-tech tools only work when backed by a dedicated team," added Thurman. "We've moved from an outdated service to a more modernized department, giving our drivers the tools they need and our residents the reliability they deserve."
