“They were just so concerned when they would come home about what we were throwing away in the garbage,” Blackburn said. “They knew that it was better for the environment if we recycled and not be wasteful, so they really started getting it going at the house.”

The process of knowing what items were recyclable, Blackburn said, wasn’t difficult for her family, as they had previously lived in Michigan where the majority of households recycled.

The most difficult part of recycling for the Blackburn house in Natchez is more of deciding who will take the bin to the curb on Wednesdays.

“They actually all like taking the bin out, so they’ll sometimes fight over who gets to,” Blackburn said. “Pretty much every week, we have it full of stuff sitting on the curb.”

Once Waste Pro picks up those recycled materials the items are taken to Concordia Metals on U.S. 84 where employees work to sort and compact everything.

Nearly six tons of recyclable materials were collected from Natchez residents during the city’s first curbside pickup in 2013.

Nearly a year later in April, the company sent its first 40,000-pound load of plastic recyclables to Alabama, where it was used to make carpet, said Jim Smith, who is over the recycling at Concordia Metals.

The City of Natchez’s curbside recycling program alone, Smith said, sends approximately 12,000 pounds of various recyclables a week to Concordia Metal.

The company recently passed the 500-ton mark for all recyclable materials for the region, which includes Natchez, Vidalia, Brookhaven, Wilkinson County and others.

Nearly 85 percent of those materials, Smith said, are paper materials such as cardboard.

“That’s where we thought we’d be at this point, but I could see us doubling that by next year,” Smith said. “If we could do that in two years, I think that would be a remarkable goal.”

Smith was the former chairman for the Green Alliance and recently stepped down after he said it became clear Concordia Metal would eventually start making a profit for processing and selling the recyclable materials. Smith said the non-profit organization and company that would soon be making a profit needed to stay separate.

“At the end of the day, it is a business, and we’re thinking in the next one to three years we’re hoping to start showing a profit,” Smith said. “The Green Alliance needs to keep growing and expanding to include various other things, so I’ll still be a member, but I felt that stepping down was the right thing to do.”

Part of what will help the program expand in the area, Shelton said, is nearly $317,000 the City of Natchez, City of Brookhaven and Wilkinson County will receive to help fund a regional recycling effort.

The three entities were awarded the funds in April through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s Regional Recycling Cooperative Grants program. The Natchez Board of Aldermen approved the terms of the agreements of the grant funding at their meeting last week, which will allow request for bids to be issued.

Natchez will use the grant to pay for transportation costs and purchase a variety of equipment which will include decorative metal recycling bins for use throughout downtown and on the Natchez Trails on the bluff as well as a compactor and 40-yard container to be used by participating downtown businesses.

Shelton said the Green Alliance is considering offering a curbside recycling program for businesses, which would likely require the businesses pay an annual fee.

“A few businesses around town have already said they would participate, and that could do a great deal for spreading the word about recycling,” Shelton said. “The more people are recycling at work, the more likely they are to do it at home.”

Shelton said portions of the grant funding will also be used for education and outreach aimed at increasing participation and teaching the importance of keeping containments such as plastic bags, Styrofoam and glass out of the recycling stream.

Knowing what he could and couldn’t recycle helped Spencer realize how easy it could be to do his part.

“At first I wasn’t really sure what to put in there, but now I know to check inside the little triangle for the recycle number, and I know what can be put in my bin,” Spencer said. “I’ll be 75 in December, and if I can do it, anyone can do it.

“People just need to be encouraged to get out everything they can from the trash, because recycling is a terrific thing that really has a big impact on all of us.”