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Golden Valley Convenience Center

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Swap Shop Stories

SWEEP is an acronym for Solid Waste Environmental Education Panel. We are an all-volunteer advisory committee to the Rutherford County Commissioners regarding matters of Solid Waste and, principally, recycling.

SWEEP originated the Convenience Center system. Before we had these nice Centers there were collections of “green-boxes” situated in many places all over the county that were un-manned, nasty, and very expensive to service. Plus, there was no attempt at recycling except what people would do alone. The tradition was, if you had something that was “too good to throw out” you would just put it on the ground outside the boxes. It was not a good system but it proves that people - given the chance - don’t want to waste good stuff.

There are now 10 Convenience Centers in Rutherford County for county residents to dispose of trash, white goods, furniture and metal, plus recycle paper, cardboard, computers, cans and bottles. Locations can be seen in the Sweep Brochure. Beginning in 2005, SWEEP found grant money to put up SWAP SHOPS which give people a place to put those things “not-ready-for-the-dump” and from which other folks can take them... all for free! Each SWAP SHOP keeps about 1,000 pounds out of the landfill per week, which translates into a pay-back period of only 8 months.

Here is a list of SWAP SHOP locations, in the order in which they were erected:
#1 - Gilkey
#2 - Golden Valley
#3 - Shiloh
#4 - Bill’s Creek
#5 - Pea Ridge

The SWAP SHOPS are the green 16x20 building located at the Convenience Centers and are open the same hours.

Money to buy the SWAP SHOPS has come from three sources so far: The County, The State, and our local Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart paid for the Bill’s Creek building in it’s entirety including donating and putting up the shelves. We are most appreciative!

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Bills Creek Opening

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Gilkey Opening

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Golden Valley Opening

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Pea Ridge Opening