NATCHEZ — Tossing out old notes and quizzes feels great to most students, but sixth-grader Alli Smith said recycling her schoolwork also allows her to play a small role in bettering the environment.

This year Trinity Episcopal Day School started a paper recycling program, and the teacher who headed up the effort said the students have been very receptive.

“For this generation (caring for the environment) is very normal,” Brandon Rowe said.

Rowe said recycling was not as much of a concern when he in school, but today’s youth are more in touch with environmental issues.

Smith is a student in Rowe’s science class.

“I like knowing we’re helping out even if its just one little piece of paper,” Smith said.

Rowe said when he joined the Trinity staff as a middle school science teacher this year he asked if Trinity had a recycling program.

When he discovered the school did not recycle, he volunteered to start a program.

He got the idea from a recycling program at his previous school near Nashville, Tenn.

“It’s more common to have recycling in bigger cities,” Rowe said.

He said smaller towns tend not to have as many resources as larger cities to coordinate recycling, so he was glad the program is working out at Trinity.

Mississippi River Pulp picks up five 96-gallon bins of recycled paper from the school every two weeks.

Each classroom has its own box, which the students empty into the larger bins when full.

“The bins get (filled) all the way to the top,” sixth-grader Eason Johnson said.

Rowe said the middle school students usually drag the bins from the elementary and lower schools to the high school for pick up.

Johnson said since many of the students toss out and refresh their notes every nine weeks, the bins are especially overflowing at those times.

“It’s very helpful for the environment,” Johnson said.

Smith and Johnson both said they discussed the new recycling program at home with their parents.

The program has inspired Smith to want to take recycling a step further.

“We only (recycle) paper; we should probably put a recycling bin in the cafeteria,” Smith said.

Smith said she wishes she could recycle at home if there was someone who could pick it up.

Cathedral School has also had a paper-recycling program similar to Trinity’s since last February.

Cathedral Elementary Secretary Teresa Mullins said Mississippi River Pulp pays the school a small price for the tonnage of paper waste they provide.

The school has earned $800 to date since the program started, Mullins said Wednesday.

“The kids are very aware and eager to put their paper in recycling containers instead of the trash,” she said.

The recycling programs teach children what they can do to be a steward of the environment, but Rowe said recycling is also just plain practical, Rowe said.

“It just makes good sense,” he said.