Medical waste in city’s recycling causes entire load to be rejected at recycling center

Published 10:44 am Tuesday, July 15, 2025

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This photo shows medical waste that someone put in their recycling bin last week, which caused the city’s entire load of recycling to be rejected at the recycling center. (Submitted)

These items can be safely recycling.

These items cannot be recycled through the city’s recycling program.

NATCHEZ — When Meridian Waste workers delivered last week’s recycling to the recycling center last week, an entire truck load of recycled material collected in Natchez was rejected.

“Someone in Natchez put medical waste in their recycling bin,” said Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson. “Needles and tubes and IV apparatus. As a result, because the recycling facility has such strict guidelines, they had to reject the city’s entire load of recycling. That costs Meridian Waste a lot of money and it also cancels out our effort to provide recycling services to our citizens.”

Gibson said the recycling bins supplied to city residents have instructions on the lid as to what items can be recycled, and what items cannot.

Anyone who still has questions can go to the city’s website and review the Meridian Waste details online.

The city’s recycling program accepts number 1 and 2 plastics, steel and aluminum cans, food and beverage cartons and flat and dry cardboard mixed paper and boxes.

Not accepted are styrofoam boxes or cups, glass bottles or jars, squeeze bottles or yogurt, sour cream or motor oil containers, plastic bags and plastic wrap or any kind of medical plastic or waste.

“We have alerted the health department, also, about the medical waste. This is a public health violation,” Gibson said.

“In time, more abuse of recycling privileges would either cause our costs to go up, which would have to be passed along to our residents, or it could result in recycling facilities refusing to take our recycled waste all together,” he said. “We need our citizens to be very mindful of what they put in the recycling bins.”

Gibson said this was the first time since Meridian Waste, even when the company operated as ADSI, that an entire load of recycling was rejected.