NATCHEZ — The recycling man of the hour, Poncho James, sent a proxy to Tuesday night’s recycling meeting.

But the proxy, Lamar Strickland, facility manager for Sumrall Recycling Service, was able to share valuable information.

Going through a slideshow of photos of the facility, he explained the variety of equipment Sumrall uses to grind up recyclables into the material that they then sell back to industries.

Servicing Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida, Sumrall Recycling gets materials like CDs, drink bottles, cardboard and newspaper to crunch down into renewable material.

One of the major questions that Strickland was able to answer is, if Adams County is to start a recycling program, what materials it should collect.

He said the easiest and most obvious would be newspaper.

“That would be our No. 1 item to start off with,” Strickland said.

From there, it trickles to cardboard, then shrink wrap, plastic and then aluminum.

He did not advise the collection of glass.

“Glass is the toughest thing to recycle right now,” Strickland said.

It’s just hard to recycle, hard to sort and there’s not a great market for it, he said.

The committee also wanted to know if any equipment would need to be purchased.

Strickland said the best thing to do would be is buy a vertical baler, which would be used to grind the material for it to be shipped off to either a middle man, like Sumrall, to then sell, or directly to a buyer.

Pick up of materials was also discussed.

Adams County Supervisor Mike Lazarus believes, like the rest of the group, that curbside pick up is not an option right now.

Strickland agreed that the county is years away from being able to have a well-used pick up program.

Any recyclables would have to be taken to a drop-off site.

But that was seemingly the only thing that the group could agree on.

And answers need to be had fast.

City Grants Coordinator Brett Brinegar is trying to write a grant to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

This grant could give the city either $50,000 or $75,000 — it’s unclear right now — as seed money to start the program.

And it’s due Oct. 1.

“I do need to know what we’re going to spend our money on,” Brinegar said in order to fully write the grant.

Questions cropped up about where a drop-off site would be, if they truly need a baler, who they would sell the materials to and who would transport the materials from the county to the buyer.

No true conclusion was drawn nearly two hours into the meeting.

And not only is the Oct. 1 deadline charging closer, but the grant application has to be approved by the Adams County Board of Supervisors and the Natchez Board of Aldermen.

The aldermen meet again in two weeks, but the supervisors meet on Monday, even further clenching a deadline.