To reduce waste and to keep the landfills from filling up, recycling was introduced as national movement in the 1970s. Today, cities, towns and individuals across the world have gone green in order to keep the environment clean.

In Vernon Parish, there are two recycling centers – one on Fort Polk and the other, the Vernon Parish Recycle Center, is in Leesville on 129 Red Town Road.

The Vernon Parish Recycle Center, on the south edge of town, collects sorted recycling – paper, cardboard, plastic, tin and aluminum cans.

"We liked to have it separated because we have to weigh everything," Recycle Center manager Keith Gibson said. "People can always recycle more. You can drive down the road and see everything on the side of the road that could be recycled."

Community members who want to recycle have to sort their recycling, by type, before bringing it to the center because it needs to be weighed before it is put away.

While having a place to drop off recycling is practical, some community members believe recycling could be bigger in the area if there was a pickup service, similar to trash pickup.

The Leesville Daily Leader posed questions on Facebook, for Vernon Parish residents, about their recycling habits and what would improve them.

Overall, the feedback was yes, they recycle or no, because it's too much of a hassle to get it to the center. Most people said they would recycle more if there was a pickup service that would pick it up from their homes.

"Where I am from the recycling is picked up like they do the trash," Christy Morgan said on Facebook. "I would love to recycle more but it's a little more of a hassle to have to find time to bring it to the center. With that being said, people make time for what they want to make time for."

According to the 2016 REI Report, recycling programs have created 757,00 jobs, $36.6 billion in wages and $6.7 billion in tax revenues.

While it may seem like a simple thing to set up a curbside pickup, the cost to implement the program would cost the city a lot of money.

The average cost for a bin costs the user $5 - $25 per week, but the city would have to pay to have it picked up, sorted, then have it shipped to Shreveport, making it cost prohibitive, making no profit.

Belinda Biehl, Vernon Parish Secretary, said a curbside pickup recycling program has been discussed before. "There have been some discussions, but it's been prohibited by the cost to do curbside recycling," she said.

3 Recycling tips-- alternatives to roadside pick-up

1. Always have bins separated and keep them dry.

2. Designate a day of the week as a recycling day, as you would for trash, and take it in.

3. Organize a neighborhood recycling program where people in your neighborhood either have a place to drop off their recycling or have someone willing to transport it to the recycling center.