City of Clinton crews collected more than 18 tons of trash during another successful Spring Clean Up Week earlier this month.

During the biannual cleanup weeks, the City of Clinton Public Works and Utilities Department suspends regular trash collection rules and additional items, including furniture, appliances, four tires per household and tree limbs cut to a certain length, are picked up.

“We collected over 18 tons of trash April 13-17,” said Stacey Ray, senior administrative specialist for the City of Clinton’s Public Works and Utilities Department. “We collected 82 chairs, 17 couches, one freezer, 110 pieces of furniture, 40 televisions, 85 mattress/box springs, 228 tires and 285 miscellaneous items.”

Approximately 30 tons of trash not normally picked up by the City of Clinton left curbs during cleanup weeks last year, and with 18 tons collected earlier this month, city collections have stayed steady.

Last spring, the city collected approximately 19 tons of trash. That campaign was followed up with more than 11 tons of items not normally picked up as part of regular trash collected during the Fall Clean Up Week in October.

The main goal of the cleanup weeks are to beautify the community and offer an opportunity for residents to participate in the effort to make aesthetic improvements and further prevent blight in their neighborhoods. Over the years, city residents have regularly taken advantage of the week-long cleanup campaigns and hundreds of tons of trash has been removed from homes, yards and streets.

Oil-based paints, batteries, insecticides, auto parts, gasoline and other substances still cannot be collected because they pose safety hazards for city crews and cannot be processed at the Sampson County Landfill. For the last couple years, those hazardous items have been able to be discarded through a Household Hazardous Waste Day held in the fall.

Ray did offer a reminder to residents about electronics, which do not have to wait for the cleanup weeks to be discarded.

“We do have a recycle center that does accept televisions and various electronics,” she said, “so they do not have to store them up through out the year until we have a clean up.”

For more information, contact the City of Clinton Public Works and Utilities Department at 910-299-4905. Fall Clean Up Week is slated for Oct 12-16.