NATCHEZ — One man’s recycling may be another man’s profit.

Natchez Police Detective Jerry Ford said police have received several reports of people rummaging through the recycling containers looking for cans and other scrap metal.

While the city doesn’t currently have an ordinance against going through the garbage, Ford said Natchez police officers would stop anybody they saw doing it and speak with them.

“We will be monitoring the situation since people have been complaining about it, and we would advise people not to go through other folks’ garbage because it could prove to be a health risk,” he said.

The recycling program began July 31. Waste Pro — the company that also picks up the city’s trash — collects recyclables in separate blue bins on Wednesdays.

Items that can be recycled include No. 1 and No. 2 plastics, paper and cardboard products and metal items such as aluminum cans and steel vegetable and soup cans.

Recycled materials are dropped off at Concordia Metal, where they will be processed to be reused.