NATCHEZ — Starting Monday, eco-minded Miss-Lou residents won’t have an excuse to toss out their recyclables with the trash.

That’s when Natchez Metals and Recycling will start excepting recyclables at their Highland Boulevard location.

Natchez Metals and Recycling co-owner Bubba Kaiser outlined a simplistic process by which recyclers can dispose of their goods.

Kaiser has basically designed a drive-thru service made of marked containers that recyclers will use to drop off their recyclables.

“You pull in, (get out of the car) open the lid, put it in and drive off,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser said elderly residents that cannot handle the materials they’ve brought in can simply wait in their vehicle for an employee to help them unload their recyclables.

Those interested in recycling will be able to drop off paper, aluminum cans, plastics, cardboard and even steel food cans.

Kaiser said there are very few restrictions for the recyclables.

Natchez Metals will not accept glass, and metal food cans must be rinsed before they can be processed.

In addition, paper products must be separated from cardboard.

However, paper products like newspaper, magazines and printer paper don’t need to be separated from each other before they can be dropped off, Kaiser said.

And while Kaiser is eager to get his new business up and running, there are others who are just as eager to start recycling.

Steve McNerney said he and his wife have been saving their recyclable materials for sometime, in the hopes that one day the area would have a place to handle such materials.

“I think it’s wonderful,” McNerney said.

McNerney is also a member of the county’s recycling committee, which has vowed to assist Kaiser’s effort with publicity.

And on Friday, McNerney was busy spreading the word.

By mid-afternoon Friday, McNerney had already contacted a local radio station to get public service announcements on the air.

“We need to get the word out there,” he said.

Fellow committee member Mike Lazarus was one of the first to make a push toward recycling and said he was very pleased with Kaiser’s plans to recycle.

“It’s a great step,” Lazarus said. “Before now there was nowhere for people to recycle, at least now people have an option.”

Aside from the environmental benefits of recycling, there could also be a financial benefit for the county, Lazarus said.

The county currently pays approximately $32 a ton to dump their trash in a landfill.

Each ton of recyclable materials not going to the landfill is money that the county doesn’t have to spend.

Lazarus said if enough people were to recycle the savings could possibly fund a home collection program.

And the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has estimated most landfills contain at least 30 percent recyclable material.

“I’d rather pay to recycle than pay to put it all in a landfill,” Lazarus. “It makes sense.”

Natchez Metals and Recycling is located at 270 Highland Blvd., they can be reached at 601-446-6283.