Cheatham County, Tennessee, has launched free residential electronics drop-off at two county convenience centers in Pegram and Ashland City, extending no-cost e-scrap collection to more than 40,000 residents under a new partnership with City eWaste, a Franklin, Tennessee-based processor.

The program accepts televisions, computers, phones, printers, routers and small appliances during regular convenience center hours. City eWaste says it will take almost anything with a plug or a battery, with defined exclusions: lightbulbs, liquids and chemicals, loose household batteries, large household appliances and copy machines.

Cheatham becomes the third Tennessee county to contract with City eWaste for convenience center drop-offs, after Williamson and Rutherford Counties. The two earlier programs provide the operating benchmark: residents there have recycled more than 600,000 pounds of electronics since launch, diverting copper, aluminum and precious metals from landfill disposal.

Under the service model, City eWaste supplies collection equipment, hauling, secure data destruction and tonnage reporting at no cost to the county or its taxpayers. Collected devices are sorted at intake — evaluated either for refurbishment or routed directly into recycling processing.

"Cheatham County is a cornerstone to our long-term vision," City eWaste CEO Matthew Rogers says. "They had the foresight to bring these services to a smaller, rural county, where residents don't always have the same sustainability options. Every county should be able to offer its residents free, secure electronics recycling close to home, and it shouldn't cost taxpayers a thing. We're grateful to Mike Russell and the Cheatham County team for moving so quickly to make this happen for their community."

Mike Russell, solid waste director for Cheatham County, framed the contract as part of a broader expansion of the county's recycling services. "We are excited to partner with City eWaste to bring Electronic Recycling to Cheatham County," Russell says. "As we continue to expand recycling opportunities for our residents, we look forward to watching this program grow for our county."

The county-contract model addresses a persistent gap in rural e-scrap collection, where curbside electronics pickup is rare and residents often face per-item fees at retail take-back programs. By siting collection at existing convenience centers, the program piggybacks on infrastructure the county already operates, keeping the marginal cost of participation near zero for both the resident and the solid waste department.

The commercial logic for City eWaste rests on the value of the inbound stream. Collected electronics contain recoverable copper, aluminum and precious metals, plus devices with refurbishment value — a mix that can support free collection where tonnage and material quality justify processing costs.

The metric to watch is throughput. Whether Cheatham County's 40,000 residents approach the per-capita recovery rates posted in Williamson and Rutherford — where cumulative volumes have already passed 600,000 pounds — will determine whether the model continues to spread to additional Tennessee counties or stalls as a three-county footprint.