How many of us have cringed after seeing a fellow motorist toss a fast-food bag out the window?

We’ve caught ourselves doing looking down our noses as these obvious litterbugs.

And while trashy people who litter public byways and highways are a large problem, a silent, much larger problem lurks behind closed doors.

What’s worse is that we’re almost all guilty of this unhealthy-for-the-earth sin.

Think about the myriad of items that you throw away each week. From paper and plastic goods to glass and metal materials, much of that bulk can — and should — be recycled.

Each week area landfills received hundreds of tons of trash. With few exceptions, little to none of that trash is culled of recyclables before the trip to the landfill.

The Natchez Mayor’s Beautification Committee met last week to discuss the need for resurrecting a defunct recycling program.

It’s a great idea and one that we hope takes root soon. Recycling is a small piece of the pie that helps both the environment and our economy.

Approximately half of the United States population has access to curbside recycling programs — essentially, all a homeowner must do is separate the recyclables and set them out on the street next to the real trash.

This may seem like a project of interest only to a small few, but we think more people would recycle — and be happy to do so — if we could get curbside recycling in our community.

Until we get such a program running in our community, we should all cringe each time we throw out something that we know could be recycled.