CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Mike Holberg and Blake Cantrell found a green business niche and filled it.
Mr. Holberg and Mr. Cantrell, who are neighbors, offer curbside pickup for recyclables on Saturday mornings. Beginning about three months ago and calling themselves Green Guys Recycling, they have seen business, well, picking up.
Things are so busy, in fact, the Green Guys say they will have to get another truck and trailer soon to make those 9 a.m. runs. And they say they soon will need a place that’s out of the weather so they can sort the recycled material and store their trailers.
“We started out just handing out fliers and starting our Web site and with magnet signs on the truck, just by word of mouth,” Mr. Holberg said.
Although Bradley County has three drop-off recycle centers, there is no curbside pickup.
“I moved here from Florida, where you can’t go anywhere without recycling,” said Mr. Holberg.
On Saturday mornings, they hitch up a trailer filled with bins, its cover latched down by bungee cords to make sure nothing flies out and onto the road.
“For now we are only in the north area of town, but we are making our way to the downtown area, too,” Mr. Cantrell said.
“We don’t require that people sort their items but we appreciate it when they do,” he added.
Mostly, they stop, pick up the blue bags they provide their customers, leave some more blue bags and go on their way.
They take most anything that can be recycled. They take old electronics to a small business here that recycles the pieces. They will even take “gently used” clothing and give it to local charities.
It’s all listed, along with prices, on their Web site, www.mygreenguys.com.
City Councilman Richard Banks recently signed up for the Green Guys service.
“They are a couple of young entrepreneurs who found a need and started a business to meet it,” he told fellow council members recently.
During a recent council discussion, Mr. Banks and some others, including Mayor Tom Rowland, said they would like to revisit the idea of city curbside recycling service.
The service was stopped nearly a decade ago when city officials said too few people took part to make it cost effective.