NATCHEZ — The expansion of curbside recycling into Adams County outside of Natchez will begin this week.

Waste Pro will be passing out blue recycling bins to 500 homes in the county Wednesday, Green Alliance Chairman Jim Smith said.

The bins will be distributed south of Natchez in the Beau Pré, Meadows, South Fork and Waverly Place areas, and north of town in the Morgantown area. Pickup of recyclables will begin April 2 and continue each Wednesday.

“We were going to do a signup program, but it is so difficult to get people to do that, it was decided to just pass them out to everyone in those neighborhoods and hopefully everyone will participate,” Smith said.

The bins will be passed out with instruction sheets, Smith said, with the goal of at least 50-percent participation in the new areas.

“If you don’t want to participate, give the bins to a neighbor who is participating, or contact the Green Alliance, and we will pick them up and give them to someone who wants to be part of the program,” Smith said.

The county government is looking to add another 500 houses to the recycling program in six months if it is successful, Smith said, but approximately 4,000 homes in Adams County are too remote to make curbside recycling economically feasible.

Recycling drop-off locations are being considered for the Foster Mound and Kingston areas, he said.

Adams County Board of Supervisors Vice President Mike Lazarus said because the 500 houses are a pilot program, the county will need to see how much participation exists before expanding further.

“I hope the people we targeted for it will step it up and recycle,” Lazarus said. “When I am out running in the city in the morning, it looks like most of the neighborhoods are doing it.”

Lazarus said residents will be surprised at how much their garbage output is reduced by recycling.

“If people will try recycling for a month, they will see just how much stuff we can recycle,” he said.

“It cuts down on our tonnage going into the landfill. We pay for it by the ton, so that is money we save right there.”

Items that can be recycled include:

• No. 1 and No. 2 plastics, such as beverage bottles, condiment containers, shampoo bottles, milk jugs and other items. No. 2 food trays cannot be recycled.

• Paper and cardboard products, such as newspapers, magazines, phone books, catalogs, office paper, flattened corrugated cardboard, cereal boxes and other items. Paper products must be kept dry.

• Metal items, such as aluminum cans and steel vegetable and soup cans. All containers must be rinsed and free of food.

Items that cannot be recycled are plastics Nos. 3-7, such as Styrofoam cups, Solo cups and plastic bags, glass, wax-covered cardboard, televisions or computer monitors.

For more information about the recycling program, visit misslourecycles.com.