About

Our mission is to make recycling a way of life for our community by providing convenient, simple, affordable curbside pick-up service for residential and commercial clients.

Blue Skies Curbside Recycling (BSCR) was founded in April 2018 to offer convenient and affordable curbside recycling pick-up in McMinn County, Tennessee.

Founder Anne Montgomery and her family began recycling when her young daughters became inspired in 2010 by Disney’s Friends for Change: Project Green campaign. Influenced by Disney stars Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and the Jonas Brothers, the Montgomery sisters became serious about recycling, and their parents joined in to support the cause.

Montgomery noted two distinct aspects of recycling:

• Once it became a habit, it became part of everyday life
• Recycling in her rural community was a lot of work.

It was the second aspect that was preventing her family and friends from recycling. At that time, the only way to recycle was to collect items at home, sort them, and transport them to the local municipal recycling center that had random operating hours.

The idea for the establishment of the business came to Montgomery while attending a friend’s football tailgate party. While bringing some tailgate items in glass containers, Montgomery quietly rinsed and put the glass jars back with her belongings. The hostess noticed what Montgomery was doing and questioned her, to which she explained that she would take the jars back to her recycling bin at home. The friend, a single mother of two young children, exclaimed, “I know I need to recycle, but it is such a hassle.” That statement became embedded in Montgomery’s mind as she thought through the process of how to take the hassle out of recycling locally.

Montgomery began researching and benchmarking other recycling programs throughout the country. She reached out to numerous contacts in local and state-level government to determine what would be required if she began a curbside recycling pick-up business. Montgomery’s goal was to offer affordable convenience to her; requiring limited sorting was important, and finding a processor that would accept mixed items was a challenge.

In early 2018, Montgomery worked out a “handshake” deal with WestRock Recycling that allowed BSCR to drop mixed recycling items such as paper, plastics #1-7, cardboard, aluminum, and tin in BSCR-provided 30-gallon blue recycling bags.