NATCHEZ — Instead of testing the waters, the City of Natchez decided to take the full plunge into citywide recycling Tuesday.

The city initially included on a six-month pilot program for 1,700 households in the contract it awarded to Waste Pro USA last November.

A judge nullified that contract after Waste Management, which was not selected, sued the city over how the selection was made. As a result, the judge ordered the city to re-solicit proposals. When it did so, city leaders opted to include a citywide recycling program.

Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Smith said the board agreed to do the citywide program after learning from City Engineer and Community Alliance Co-Chair David Gardner and the Green Alliance that a similar program had recently been successful in Brookhaven.

Smith said she believes that the city will get a better buy-in from the community if recycling is offered to everyone.

“And it will have a bigger impact if you do the whole program,” she said.

Smith said she believes the citywide recycling program will be a positive thing for residents and the city.

The citywide program, she said, will allow the entire community to be educated on recycling and also give residents an opportunity to participate.

Ward 5 Alderman Mark Fortenbery said he does not believe it would be fair to only offer recycling to certain neighborhoods in the city and not others.

“I think the whole board said let’s get on board and see what happens,” Fortenbery said. “I think if you’re going to do it, you should not offer it to certain areas of the city. Then it would be, ‘Why is it not going to be offered in my neighborhood when it’s offered two miles down the road?’”

Ward 2 Alderman Ricky Gray and Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis agreed.

“You wouldn’t want to do just half the city,” Gray said. “You’re going to upset some people. If you’re going to do it, you need to do it for everybody.”

The board agreed that it would like a two-year contract with an option to renew at the end of the first two years.

That way, Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said, if recycling does not take off in the city, the board could re-evaluate the program and decide if recycling needs to be scaled back or eliminated.

Waste Pro’s proposal included recycling for $1.70 per household a month for the first year of the contract, which would cost the city approximately $122,400 for the estimated 6,000 households in the city annually. The cost increases to $1.75 per household for the second year of the contract and incrementally up to $1.97, if the contract is renewed that long. Six years is the maximum length allowed by law for a collection contract, but the city has not yet negotiated final terms for the proposed contract with Waste Pro.

Rates for residents will not change, city officials have said. Each residence will also receive an 18-gallon recycling bin and a 65-gallon garbage can from Waste Pro.

Smith said that at the end of the possible two-year contract, she hopes recycling has saved the city money by reducing the amount of trash taken to the landfill.

The city is charged by the ton for garbage disposal, so reducing the amount of trash could save on disposal costs, Smith said. Less trash because of recycling could also mean that in two years, the city could reduce pick-up to once a week and save on collection costs.

“My hope is that it’s going so well we only need once-a-week garbage pick-up,” she said. “That’s the way it was done (when I lived) in Raleigh and Sarasota. It was just once-a-week garbage pick-up.”

Although Smith says no conflict of interest exists, Smith’s husband, Jim, is chair of the Green Alliance, which is under the umbrella of the Community Alliance, and an employee of local recycling company Concordia Metal.

Smith said she looked into whether she should recuse herself from the vote on trash contracts because of her husband’s connection to recycling. She said, however, her attorney did not believe it was a conflict of interest, and neither does she.

Smith said her husband was advocating for recycling in the city with Green Alliance, a nonprofit group, prior to being employed at Concordia Metal.

The city’s request for proposals, Smith said, was for waste pick-up and recycling pick-up, and the city’s contract is with Waste Pro, not Concordia Metal.

“Concordia Metal is simply a drop-off location for recycling materials,” she said. “The choice (for a) recycling drop-off location is up to Waste Pro, a decision in which the city has no financial interest.”

Smith also noted that the awarding of the contract to Waste Pro was a unanimous vote.

Waste Pro, Smith said, will likely drop off recyclables at Concordia Metal because it is the closest company that takes recyclables.

“But they could take it to Sumrall, Mississippi, too,” she said.