Natchez and some Adams County residents enjoy a luxury not offered in many communities: Curbside recycling.

Residents here can put their paper, plastic and metal items, such as aluminum cans, outside in blue bins provided them for convenient pick up each Wednesday.

City of Natchez residents pay for recycling through a mandatory program billed for garbage collection on the resident’s water bill. However, Adams County is paying the tab during a pilot program offering the service to 500 residents who live in subdivision or clusters of houses in unincorporated parts of the county.

While the number of residents who take advantage of the recycling program here is higher than the national average, about half the 500 residents in the county’s pilot program aren’t choosing to recycle.

Adams County supervisors this week asked that those who choose not to recycle put out the blue bin provided them, upside down, curbside so that the bins may be collected and provided to other residents who would like to recycle.

If you aren’t recycling and are one of the fortunate in Adams County to whom the program is offered, before you turn in your blue recycling bin, give participating some thought.

By separating and offering for recycling your paper, plastic and metal items, you are helping to save tons and tons of waste from being deposited in our overburdened landfills.

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.

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

Metal items, such as aluminum cans and steel vegetable and soup cans, can also be recycled, but all containers must be rinsed and free of food.

Taking these simple steps now provides a worthy investment for generations to come.