Recycle Mississippi Offers Curbside Recycling in City and County

When COVID-19 hit and forced the city of Oxford to discontinue its curbside recycling services, the three owners of Recycle Mississippi sprang into action and offered to bring their service to Oxford residents.

Seth Kelly and Channing Holcomb had previously bought homes in rural areas of Lafayette and Pontotoc counties, and they quickly realized there was no curbside recycling offered.

“We wanted to make a change,” Holcomb said. “We started looking deeper into areas surrounding Oxford and to our surprise noticed several well known, great communities and subdivisions such as Wellsgate, North Pointe, The Lakes, did not have access to this convenient service either.”

The two men spoke another friend, Will Traylor, a Pontotoc resident who has known the pair since high school. The three men started working on plans to start a private recycling service in Lafayette and Pontotoc counties.

Recycle Mississippi started on July 10, with test routes and officially launched the business in November 2019.

The city stopped its service in April after furloughing more than 100 people. While all those furloughed have been brought back to work, it’s still unknown if city officials plan on bringing the curbside service back. The Oxford Recycling Center remains open for people to drop off their recyclables. Holcomb said Recycle Mississippi drops off everything they collect – except glass – to the Oxford facility off Molly Barr Road.

Oxford residents who participated in Oxford’s curbside recycling program and still have their bins may not have to pay the $25 start-up fee.

“It’s depending on the plan they choose,” Holcomb said. “If they do not have bins, the set-up fee will supply them with bins for them to keep.”

The set-up fee is $25.

Customers can choose from three plans that range from $8 to $12 a month, depending on whether you pay monthly or yearly. The plans offered are Standard: plastics, metals and paper/cardboard; All-Inclusive: plastics, metals, paper/cardboard and glass. There is also an option for Glass Only pickup.

Pick up is done every other Saturday morning.

“Subscribers will need to set out their items the night before,” Holcomb said.

One unique service Recycling Mississippi offers is glass recycling.

“Since glass recycling is not offered anywhere in North Mississippi, we partnered with Apex Glass in Arkansas, Holcomb said. “We are currently storing enough glass at our warehouse so that we can provide a large shipment for them to re-purpose.”

Holcomb said they’ve received a lot of support from Oxford and surrounding communities.

“We truly appreciate their support not only for our business but most importantly for helping our local communities become greener,” Holcomb said.