Who We Are

PRIDE OF PLACE (POP) is an all-volunteer effort started in late 2004 to increase recycling, create green jobs and enhance Tennessee's scenic beauty by encouraging passage of a refundable 5-cent deposit on glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers, with returns to independent, self-supporting "redemption centers." (See the legislation page for more details about the Tennessee Recycling Refunds Act.)

POP is a project of Scenic Tennessee, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1987 and the only citizen's organization in the state committed solely to issues of scenic quality and integrity. Scenic Tennessee is an affiliate of Scenic America.

POP's diverse supporters include farmers, manufacturers, county mayors, commissioners and sheriffs, hunters and anglers, Realtors, teachers, tourism professionals, solid waste professionals, marina operators, outdoor enthusiasts, legislators from both sides of the aisle, and advocates for the poor, the homeless and those with mental and physical challenges. Supporters even include a growing number of small grocers and bottlers!

POP's efforts are guided by a network of local and regional volunteers and overseen by founder and coordinator Marge McCormick Davis, Ph.D., of Mount Juliet in Wilson County.

Marge is president of Scenic Tennessee, a member of the Governor's Advisory Council for Keep Tennessee Beautiful, and a member of the executive board of the Container Recycling Institute, a national research and advocacy organization. 

Marge has a doctorate in English from Vanderbilt University (1989) and has written extensively on conservation and waste-reduction issues. As former publications editor for the Waste Reduction Assistance Program of the University of Tennessee's Center for Industrial Services (part of the Institute for Public Service and the Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership), she has profiled the waste-reduction efforts, challenges and success stories of dozens of Tennessee businesses, from the very large to the very small. Her articles have appeared in The Tennessee Conservationist (magazine of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) and Tennessee Wildlife (magazine of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency). Her 1997 book, Sportsmen United: The Story of the Tennessee Conservation League, is considered an authoritative account of the conservation history of Tennessee starting in the 1800s.

Marge grew up in Portland, Maine; she graduated from Bates College the same year (1976) that Maine passed the nation's third container deposit law, by a referendum vote of 57 percent. When she joined the staff of the Maine Audubon Society in 1978, deposit opponents had just launched a multi-million-dollar effort to do away with the "bottle bill." Maine Audubon led the campaign to save the bill, and in 1979, in one of the largest turnouts in Maine referendum history, Maine's voters upheld their container deposit law by an overwhelming margin of 84 percent.