Following Winter Storm Fern, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce launched a Business Impact Survey to better understand how we could support the broader business community. Many small business members noted the value of continued visibility, connection, and shared resources. Through our Small Business Support Campaign, we’re highlighting survey participants across our e-newsletters, blog, and social media channels. We encourage you to learn more, support them, and share their services.
One way the community can support us right now is by choosing our residential or commercial glass recycling services, allowing us to earn your business and generate the sustainable revenue needed to provide stable, paid employment for individuals working to rebuild their lives in Nashville through Justice Industries.
Justice Industries is more than a recycling service; we are a workforce development organization powered by earned revenue. Every time someone chooses our glass recycling services in Nashville, they are directly supporting stable employment for individuals overcoming barriers such as homelessness, recovery, disability, and past incarceration.
It is also important to share that weather disruptions do not just pause pickups; they pause paychecks. As a mission-driven social enterprise, consistent commercial and residential customers are what allow us to provide reliability for both our clients and our employees.
We welcome opportunities to highlight employee success stories, commercial partnerships, and the environmental impact of local glass recycling. Our work is both economic and environmental, and that dual impact is central to who we are.
In a few sentences, what does your business do, and who do you serve?
Justice Industries is a Nashville-based nonprofit social enterprise providing residential and commercial glass recycling services. We serve households, restaurants, bars, distilleries, event venues, and hospitality partners across Nashville and surrounding communities.
Our work keeps thousands of pounds of glass out of local landfills each week while creating stable, paid employment for individuals facing barriers to traditional work, including those experiencing homelessness, recovery, disability, poverty, or past incarceration.
What inspired you to start this business, and what’s the story behind it?
Justice Industries is a Nashville-based nonprofit social enterprise providing residential and commercial glass recycling services. We serve households, restaurants, bars, distilleries, event venues, and hospitality partners across Nashville and surrounding communities. Our work keeps thousands of pounds of glass out of local landfills each week while creating stable, paid employment for individuals facing barriers to traditional work, including those experiencing homelessness, recovery, disability, poverty, or past incarceration. Justice Industries was founded by Mark after driving through Nashville and seeing the growing number of people experiencing homelessness and holding signs that read “Will work for food.” He believed our community could do better than temporary charity; we could create real, dignified work.
At the same time, Nashville had limited options for glass recycling, and thousands of pounds of recyclable material were ending up in landfills. Mark saw an opportunity to address both challenges with one solution.
Justice Industries was built on the belief that steady employment changes lives. By providing glass recycling services to residential and commercial customers, the organization creates paid jobs for individuals facing barriers such as homelessness, recovery, disability, and past incarceration, proving that business can be both good for the environment and good for the community.
What products or services would you most like the community to know about right now?
Justice Industries would most like the community to know about our residential and commercial glass recycling services. We provide convenient curbside pickup for households and customized recycling solutions for restaurants, bars, distilleries, event venues, and hospitality partners across Nashville and surrounding counties.
As our commercial base continues to grow, these partnerships generate sustainable revenue that directly funds stable, paid employment for individuals overcoming barriers such as homelessness, recovery, disability, and past incarceration.
We also offer special event recycling and large-volume commercial services, helping businesses reduce landfill waste while demonstrating environmental leadership. Every bin we service represents both glass diverted from landfills and meaningful hours of work created in our community.
What makes your business unique or special in our community?
Justice Industries is unique because we are a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated specifically to glass recycling. In a city where glass recycling options have historically been limited, we provide a localized, reliable solution that keeps thousands of pounds of glass out of landfills each week.
What truly sets us apart is that every pickup directly creates paid employment for individuals facing barriers to work, including those overcoming homelessness, recovery, disability, poverty, and past incarceration. Unlike traditional recycling companies, our revenue is reinvested into wages, workforce support, and upward mobility opportunities.
We exist at the intersection of environmental sustainability and second chances, proving that business can be both mission-driven and operationally strong, good for the environment and good for the community.
What’s the best way for people to support your business right now?
The best way to support Justice Industries right now is to sign up for residential or commercial glass recycling services. Every new household or business that joins generates sustainable revenue that directly funds stable, paid employment for individuals facing barriers to work in Nashville.
Community members can also support our mission through direct financial contributions. Donations help us invest in equipment, vehicles, safety supplies, and workforce development, allowing us to expand services and create even more job opportunities.
Whether through recycling services or financial support, every partnership strengthens our ability to be good for the environment and good for the community.
Are there any current offers, needs, or messages you’d like us to help share?
Justice Industries was forced to pause operations for an entire week during the recent ice storm in Nashville. Because our team members are hourly employees, that shutdown meant they were unable to work and unable to earn wages.
As an organization, we chose to provide a stipend to help cover missed days. Supporting our employees in this way was important to us, but it was financially challenging. When operations stop, both revenue and paychecks stop.
Our message to the community is simple: we want to earn your business. When households and companies choose our residential or commercial glass recycling services, it creates sustainable, recurring revenue that allows us to provide stable jobs and weather unexpected disruptions. Long-term customer partnerships are what truly sustain our mission.
Follow Justice Industries, Inc. on LinkedIn and visit their website.