NATCHEZ — Miss-Lou residents will soon get an earful about curbside recycling thanks to a grant awarded Tuesday to the Green Alliance.

The Curbside Value Partnership (CVP), an organization formed to help communities grow and sustain their curbside recycling programs, selected the Green Alliance, a local non-profit group, to receive $30,000 to help implement an educational and marketing campaign aimed at increasing participation in the Miss-Lou recycling program.

The Miss-Lou was one of 15 communities selected by CVP to receive assistance to execute upcoming recycling education plans.

Jim Smith, who is chair of the Green Alliance, said the funds would be put toward spreading the word about the program and recycling in general.

“It’s about creating awareness and building participation first of all, and second it’s to teach people what can be recycled, what can’t and the importance of keeping contaminants out of it,” Smith said. “When you come into an area that isn’t familiar with recycling, you need to educate as much as possible.”

Natchez officials are currently negotiating collection and curbside recycling and disposal contracts with Waste Pro USA.

Vidalia city officials currently are ironing out the final details for its recycling pilot program, which will begin with 500 containers for residents who wish to volunteer to participate in the program.

CVP spokesperson Jennifer Hamilton said two different grants are available through the program: one for $5,000 that can be used for traditional advertising and another $25,000 that includes creative marketing and communications support by CVP.

“Green Alliance actually received both of the grants, so we have a conference call scheduled where we’ll get into all the details of what they’re trying to do with their program and what we can provide,” Hamilton said. “It’s not this cut-and-dry mold thing we give to communities, so we’re looking for the community to tell us what they need help with and what we can offer them.”

Smith said he was looking forward to the call and finding out what kind of creative services the company could bring to the area.

“This company is big on data and tracking and seeing which programs work better based on demographics of different neighborhoods,” Smith said. “So we’re going to do a program to test the effectiveness of different kinds of marketing whether that’s direct mail, door-to-door or traditional print advertising and see what works in the different areas of town.”

Smith said he is waiting for city officials to approve the Waste Pro contract before beginning the citywide recycling program.

City Attorney Hyde Carby said Tuesday at the Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting that he expected to have the contracts finalized within the next few days.