If focusing on recycling is a poker game, Southwest Mississippi is about to go “all in” betting on success.

The cities of Natchez and Brookhaven, along with Wilkinson County haven been awarded more than $300,000 in grant funds to push recycling in the region.

We’ve long been supporters of recycling — so much so that we, along with other regional media partners, agreed to offer discounted advertising space as part of the grant proposal. The goal is to help educate our communities on the importance of recycling.

We hope the program is a success.

Recycling, if successful, could become a quality of life issue for residents. Many people relocating here from other parts of the country fully expect to have recycling options available. Up until recently, only the diehard among us — those willing to stockpile recyclables and personally haul them off — managed to recycle much.

Now, however, with curbside recycling programs coming online — in Natchez and across the river in Vidalia — recycling has never been easier.

But still, recycling carries a crazy stigma in the minds of some locals. They think it’s too complicated, not necessary or too expensive.

For anyone who has lived near a landfill, the alternative is clear — recycling beats the heck out of burying more and more tons of “stuff” under the ground.

In the end, this big bet may have two big winners — community members and the environment.