The last load has been delivered to the landfill and more than344 tons of garbage were removed in a five-week countywide effortto improve the community’s appearance.

The 2007 Great American Cleanup has removed more garbage fromLincoln County than any of the previous campaigns, said RonnieDurr, county litter coordinator.

“This has been the most, tonnage-wise. We just keep climbing,”he said. “We’re up quite a few tons from last year. It’s been agood cleanup, but I’m glad it’s over with.”

More than 344 tons of garbage were removed from collectionpoints during the campaign, which easily eclipsed last year’s totalof 247 tons, Durr said.

“Of that total amount, about 40 tons were recyclable products,”he said.

Each week during the campaign, a district was selected to hostlarge collection bins from Thursday to Monday.

District Three led the collection efforts, accounting for 87tons of garbage, but was followed closely by District Five at 82tons, including white goods. Trailing them were District One at 69tons, District Four at 57 tons and District Two at 47 tons, Durrsaid.

Residents could use the large receptacles to dispose of itemsthey cannot normally put out with the household garbage, items suchas furniture, mattresses, televisions, clothes, and buildingmaterials.

The 2007 campaign safely disposed of 3,453 tires and 150 vehiclebatteries, Durr said. The number of both tires and batteries wasalso up significantly, but the quantity of batteries doubled.

“I don’t think we had but 75 last year,” he said.

Durr said he expected the 2007 campaign, the county’s seventh,to start showing a noticeable decline in volume. But he was a bitsurprised by the amount that was generated.

“It’s been quite a challenge this year with the product that wasbrought in,” he said. “I was expecting at some point for it to peakand go down, but that has not happened yet. There’s been a steadyincrease.”

A continued increase, however, has its benefits, Durr said,because without the campaign a percentage of the volume collectedwould most likely find its way into isolated and remote areas ofthe county.

“It’s eliminated some stuff that I normally would be fishing outof creeks or picking up from an illegal dump,” he said.

Although the campaign ended last week, Durr said he is stillbusy cleaning up the collection points, which were established onprivate property.

“I appreciate the property owners letting us use their property,and we have to get it back to where it was,” he said.

Some sites will require gravel or dirt to return them to thecondition there were in prior to the campaign, Durr said.