Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and Knox County Deputy Director of Knox County Office of Neighborhoods Grant Rosenberg officially opened the city's new Downtown Recycling Center Tuesday with a ribbon cutting at the center's 400 State Street location. "This is something that downtown residents and businesses have wanted for a long time and we're very pleased that it's up and running, I think it will see a lot of use," Haslam said. "I also want to thank Knox County for helping us to make this center a reality." 

Mayor Haslam and Mayor Ragsdale signed an agreement earlier this year - approved by the Knoxville City County and the Knox County Commission - that allowed Knoxville to develop the new recycling center on Knox County property at no charge."I'm excited that this site will be used to help our downtown citizens," Ragsdale said, "and this is just a great example of the county and city governments working together to make good things happen."The new center is also the city's newest "Super Recycling Center" meaning that it involves a partnership between the city and Goodwill, which will have an attendant and a trailer at the site for collections.The new downtown collection facility becomes the seventh Super Recycling Center operated by the city's Solid Waste Division, which also operates two unattended drop-off centers.It will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., seven days a week.