NATCHEZ — Some Natchez streets were a little more colorful Monday as bright green trash cans and blue recycling bins were delivered to 1,000 residents.

By the end of the week, Waste Pro USA employees will deliver 6,000 trash cans and bins to all residents who pay for trash service through Natchez Water Works as part of the company’s newly awarded contract for collection and recycling with the city.

Waste Pro Division Manager Doug Atkins said residents could begin using their trash cans this week, but to wait to use their recycling bins until August.

“That’s when we’re shooting to start picking up the recycling,” Atkins said. “We wanted to go ahead and get both of them out, but residents just need to hold off on using their recycling bins for now.”

The green, 65-gallon trash cans have wheels and a lid and are the smallest ones the company issues, Atkins said.

“We have a 95-gallon can that we gave out in Brookhaven, but we decided to go down to the 65-gallon cans for Natchez,” Atkins said. “If residents can’t handle the weight of the can, they can call us, we’ll pick it up and they go back to using their old can.”

Atkins said residents who have no use for their old trash can anymore could place it outside during their pickup day with a note attached instructing employees to throw it away.

“Our guys are trained to treat those cans like a pot of gold, so unless they have some kind of note taped on there or a sticky note we won’t know to take them,” Atkins said. “What they can’t do is use those old cans for recycling.

“Our guys will be trained to only look for the blue recycling bins, so if they see anything else out there that day, they’re not going to know if it’s recycling or trash.”

Once the recycling program begins in August, residents will leave their recycling bins on the curb Wednesdays for pick-up service.

The recycling process will be single stream, which means residents don’t have to sort their materials into different piles or bins.

Recyclable materials include plastics, such as water or soda bottles; paper and cardboard, such as magazines, newspapers and office paper; and metals, such as aluminum or soup cans.

Glass, wax coated cardboards, Styrofoam and plastic bags can’t be recycled.

Each trashcan and recycling bin contains a barcode, Atkins said, which is scanned before each delivery to register it with that specific house.

“Those codes have a number that’s issued to your name, address and GPS location of your house,” he said. “That way when people call and say, ‘I never got a can’ or it winds up in the county somewhere, we have the documentation when we delivered it and who it belongs to.

“The bins and cans are owned by the city and leased to the residents, so they are city property that we’re keeping track of.”

Mayor Butch Brown said he was glad to see the trashcans and bins being delivered to city residents and hoped they began using them appropriately.

“We hope they enjoy them and embrace the trash and recycling program to help make a better, litter-free Natchez,” he said.