Nashville may have a drinking problem… as in no one is finishing their drinks before they throw them away.
There’s no other way to put it: Music City is one of the premiere tourist destinations in the United States. 17.4 million people visited Nashville in 2025, and that annual visitor number is expected to gradually increase in the next couple of years (especially with the Super Bowl on its way).
Though often criticized for some of it’s touristy characteristics, people evidently can’t get enough of the pedal taverns, artist-owned bars, hot chicken, and $15 beers.
And tourists evidently aren’t paying attention to all of the negative headlines that surrounds Nashville. This one is a bit of a grey area, but it still affects tourists and the city as a whole. Nashville has run into a bit of a liquid problem, and Metro leaders are currently trying to figure out a solution, as explained by WKRN:
“Metro Public Works’ waste commission reported trash bins in downtown Nashville are bursting with liquid. Officials said they found 70% of waste downtown was liquid. The commission believes this is a uniquely Nashville problem as similar downtown areas like New Orleans and Las Vegas don’t have the same issue. Officials said the liquid volume overflows trucks and makes recycling more difficult.”
That’s a wild statistic, right? 70% of the trash in Downtown Nashville is liquid? How is that possible? How was that percentage reached?
One thing that might play into the overwhelming liquid issue is Nashville and the Broadway area not allowing for open consumption. The above excerpt mentioned that New Orleans doesn’t have that problem… they let people take their drinks out and about on the street, and even provide to-go drinks. If you’ve ever been to Music City and you try to take your beer or alcoholic beverage of choice out of the establishment you got it from, they tell you to throw it out.
Metro Nashville thinks the way businesses dispose of ice (sometimes just dumping it into the trash) is also contributing to the “70% of trash is liquid” issue. Apparently, the only way the city is considering curbing the issue is to put drainage holes in trash cans so that all of the excess liquid can drain into the wastewater systems.
I’m sure that would make Downtown Nashville smell even better.
All in all, it’s just another weird and unique way that Music City is making headlines. Though it’s a problem, I guess it’s better than some of the other rankings and studies that Nashville has been a part of in recent years. In 2o25, the city was ranked as one of the worst 30 places in the entire world when it comes to traffic. Something called the INRIX 2025 Traffic Scorecard took a look at congestion over 900 cities across 36 countries, and Nashville fell among the worst 30 on the globe, and one of top 15 traffic-congested cities in the United States.
Take a trip to Nashville, and its famous Lower Broadway area, and you’ll feel that congestion.
Then there was another, not-so-nice ranking from InsureAndGo that ranked Nashville as No. 4 on the list of the world’s Top 15 Tourist Trap Cities. They gave “Music City” an authenticity score of 3.8 out of ONE HUNDRED, which is just diabolical. But when you hear their explanation, it kind of makes sense:
“Known as the ‘Country Music Capital of the World,’ Nashville has been a standout destination for those who want to get immersed in the music genre’s history for quite some time. However, the famous Broadway strip has lost a bit of its shine the more it curates for visitors. Branded bars and polished venues overshadow the more organic local music scene, contributing to its lower authenticity score according to those who’ve been there.”
Only Chicago, Venice, and Las Vegas ranked higher than Nashville on the list.
And who knows if that was factoring in Nashville’s current liquid garbage problem. If they just start intentionally leaking garbage juice all across Downtown as a solution, I think that 3.8 out of 100 score could somehow end up being even worse.
