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Solid Waste division plans composting rollout, convenience centers and major fleet purchases while managing vacancies
Summary
Solid Waste presented an FY26 plan to add convenience centers, expand a strike team, start curbside organics/composting and replace fleet; the fund serves about 171,000 MLGW customers and held roughly $16 million in fund balance at the time of presentation.
K. Philip Davis, director of the Memphis Solid Waste Division, told the budget committee on May 7 that FY26 priorities include filling positions, replacing fleet, repairing the Belvedere transfer station, expanding the strike team and rolling out organics composting.
"Our priorities include filling positions, acquiring fleet, repairing the Belvieu transfer station, expanding the strike team and convenience center program, and covering the escalating operating costs," Davis said in his presentation.
Davis said the Solid Waste Fund is a special revenue fund funded by fees billed on the MLGW bill to roughly 171,000 customers and that the fund balance was approximately $16 million near the time of the presentation. He said the division ordered approximately $5.9 million in equipment in November and expects additional vehicle deliveries through calendar 2025 and into FY26; the division plans another ordering cadence for FY27 to meet a multi‑year fleet replacement cycle.
On organics and composting, Davis said the division plans a rollout initially targeted to be budget neutral and aimed at residential curbside and yard waste diversion. He said the city has a state‑permitted composting facility at Ensley Bottoms and that the administration is negotiating a contract and a sublease to allow a private operator to run the composting site; Davis named the selected vendor as a national operator under contract negotiations.
Davis also described a strike‑team expansion and convenience‑center plans for FY26 (targeted rollout in Q2) and said hiring is tied to equipment delivery: the division expects to fill 29 collection positions as FY25 equipment arrives and additional hires as FY26 vehicles are delivered.
Committee members sought detailed vacancy timelines and asked for a breakdown of prior‑year staffing changes and metrics to judge performance. Several council members pressed the division to provide a clear list of who manages contractor oversight for Area E and to clarify how the strike team and enforcement by the Community Enhancement Division will coordinate with solid waste operations.
No formal vote was taken; the division said it will return with additional documentation on vacancies, equipment schedules, strike‑team metrics and the composting contract.
