NATCHEZ — On Saturday afternoon Boy Scout Troop 168 was tossing some of the last remnants of holiday cheer in a Dumpster.

But it was all for a good cause.

The troop spent the afternoon collecting old Christmas trees and bringing them to Stine Lumber Company for recycling.

Scoutmaster Ricky Warren said part of the Scout Oath calls for scouts to be thrifty — and recycling trees fits right in with that.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to get to work with the community,” he said.

And this year the scout’s thrifty practices fit in well with Stine’s newest program.

Stine employee Steve McNerney said this year was the first year the store collected used Christmas trees in an effort to keep them out of local landfills.

“So far we’ve had a lot of success,” McNerney said looking out over Dumpsters full of old trees.

McNerney estimated the new program kept at least 500 trees out of landfills.

And each tree that doesn’t get to a landfill represents money the city and county aren’t spending to throw it away.

Once all the tress have been collected they’ll be chipped into mulch, which will be distributed to the community.

“It’s going great,” McNerney said of the project.

To bolster the project’s success Troop 168 contributed a trailer load of trees on Saturday.

Prior to their drop off at Stine the troop was criss-crossing the Miss-Lou collecting the trees.

Boy Scout Bubba McKinley said he was just glad the scouts were able to contribute to the project.

“We’ll do anything we can to help,” McKinley said.

And the work McKinley did on Saturday was apparent — his hands were coated in a mixture of pinesap and dirt.

“It was a little messy,” he said.

And while the project was a bit messy, McNerney said he was surprised and pleased by its success.

After learning from local garbage collectors that nearly 1,500 Christmas trees make their way to local landfills each season, McNerney said he’s proud the community worked together to decrease that number by nearly one third.

“We did great,” McNerney.

Stine will collect the trees until Jan. 15.