Lifting Recycling As The Standard Since 1990

The Tennessee Recycling Coalition is pleased to announce the 2024 Recycler of the Year Awards. TRC’s Recycler of the Year awards recognize individuals, organizations, and businesses, in the State of Tennessee that have demonstrated a commitment and outstanding achievement to waste prevention and recycling. Lincoln Young, President of Tennessee Recycling Coalition, announced the Annual Recycler of the Year award during a ceremony at Park Vista in Gatlinburg, TN. Each year TRC honors the most dedicated and successful individuals and organizations working to advance recycling in our State. The ceremony is a highlight of three days of learning and networking organized by the Tennessee Recycling Coalition and the TN Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The TN Recycling Coalition commends the applicants for their contributions, and we congratulate the winners in each category.

Lincoln Young, Tennessee Sustainability Conference director, announced the
awards during closing ceremonies of a three-day learning and networking
conference at Gatlinburg’s Park Vista Hotel. The joint event was organized by TRC,
the TN Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tennessee Environmental
Conference.
The award for Business Recycler of the Year was presented to Domtar, a leading
provider of a wide variety of fiber-based projects. The organization took the
strategic move in 2020 to idle their Kingsport Mill and enter the containerboard
market. Resuming operation in 2023, the Kingsport Mill is home to the second-largest
recycled containerboard machine in North America, capable of producing approximately
600,000 tons of recycled linerboard and corrugated medium, annually. The Kingsport
Mill is also the largest recycler of corrugated cardboard in the state of Tennessee.
Metro Nashville received the Government Recycler of the Year. In 2023, Metro
Waste Services, a division of Metro Water Services, introduced the Food Scraps Pickup
Pilot, a program that provides free curbside composting services to 750 Nashville
households for one year. MWS worked with contractor, Compost Nashville. To date,
FSPP has collected 42 tons of food scraps and anticipates diverting approximately 115
tons of food waste from landfills by the end of the pilot year.
Sewanee Mountain Grotto was presented the Non-Profit Recycler of the Year award.
The Sewanee Mountain Grotto has a long history of recycling. Since its reactivation in
2004, the Grotto has participated in recycling aluminum cans and plastic bottles at

regional caving events held in the area. In 2019, one of the grotto members was
working at The Caverns music venue in Pelham, TN and recognized a need for The
Caverns to begin recycling. In the last two years, they have collected more than 10,000
pounds of cans and plastic for recycling from The Caverns.
This year’s Top Leader award was presented to Gary Wayne Hyde, Sanitation
Department manager and Lawrence County Solid Waste director for the City of
Lawrenceburg and Lawrence County. Hyde has spent more than 40 years in the ever-
changing and difficult solid waste and recycling industry. In 2015, his department was
awarded the Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for Materials Management,
and in 2022 he was awarded The Tennessee Solid Waste Director of the Year.
Event Partner, the Tennessee Environmental Conference, presented the 2024 Paul
Hayden Memorial Award to Kathleen Gibi, executive director of Keep the Tennessee
River Beautiful. Gibi, a tireless advocate for the Tennessee River, rallied 994 volunteers
who removed more than 218,000 pounds of trash from the Tennessee River in 2023
alone. Jan Compton, Tennessee Environmental Conference director, presented the
award.
The Tom Hattle Memorial Award went to Ginger Reasonover of The Environmental
Council. Reasonover assists in the planning, coordinating, and executing Recycling
Roundup collection events across the state, collecting an average of 22,000 pounds of
materials at each Roundup. Reasonover is passionate about the environment, and goes
above and beyond in her community to promote recycling. She has received the TN
Project Learning Tree Educator of the Year award, NEED Primary Teacher of the YEAR
and the National Geographic Certified Educator award.
In addition to the Recycling Awards, the Bob Fletcher Memorial Award Scholarship, in
the amount of $2500, was presented to Lily Barrie. This scholarship will provide funding
for Barrie to attend The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to study Political
Science with a Minor in Environmental Studies. The scholarship memorializes the late
Bob Fletcher, a passionate advocate helping counties, cities, and businesses with
household hazardous waste, recycling, and other environmental issues. Fletcher
worked for the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation.

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