NATCHEZ — The county’s lone recycling project has closed its doors.

That announcement came at the local recycling committee meeting Tuesday.

The meeting began with the announcement by committee leader Dickey King that the county’s lone recycling operation had closed its doors on Tuesday evening.

King said the news was sudden and unexpected.

“It was a shock,” King said.

While the committee did not establish the recycling program — it was privately run by Bubba Kaiser — they did start the dialogue that eventually resulted in the opening of the recycling center.

Kaiser, co-owner of Natchez Metals & Recycling, was not at the meeting and could not be reached for comment.

King said he was told the center was closed because the price of recyclable materials had recently dropped so low that the cost associated with recycling was not enough to generate a profit.

But King said he felt Tuesday’s news was a setback.

“Recycling is not dead,” he said. “It’s only come to a standstill.”

But by the end of Tuesday’s meeting, there was no clear consensus on what would get recycling moving again.

The committee did, however, rename themselves. They’ll now be known as the Adams County Green Alliance.

After coming up with their new name, committee members spent the rest of the evening kicking around ideas as to how to get the recycling program back on track.

The only solution reached: Go back to Poncho.

At the group’s initial formation months ago, some members traveled to Sumrall Recycling to visit recycler Poncho James.

King made the initial trip and said James’ operation is one of the most efficient he’s seen.

King said he’ll be contacting James in the coming days in an attempt to work a deal where James would travel to Natchez to collect recyclables in exchange for the profit brought by their sale.

“We have to try,” King said.

King said some logistical issues, like drop-off locations, would need to be figured out before the program would work.

There was also some talk at the meeting that calls for the alliance to be turned into a non-profit organization.

That status would allow the group to collect grants, enter contracts and collect profits from recycling.

However it was decided recycling should be the group’s primary focus before non-profit status was pursued.

Alliance member Mary Jo McNerney said she felt recycling was more important than pursuing non-profit status.

“We need to start recycling,” she said.