Keep Lincoln County Beautiful will begin its annual GreatAmerican Cleanup project Thursday at 7 a.m., as a pair of trashbins will be rolled into place in District One on Monticello Streetand County Farm Road.

The trash bins will remain in place from Thursday until Mondaymorning, when they will be withdrawn, emptied and prepared to bereset at a different location in the county, KLCB officialssaid.

City and county residents are encouraged to bring large itemsnot easily disposed of, such as furniture, and deposit them in thetrash bins.

“This is designed for people to be able to get rid of a lot ofthe things they can’t get rid of easily, like old couches,television, refrigerators and mattresses,” said Keep Lincoln CountyBeautiful member Homer Richardson. “It’s to encourage people not tolitter – a chance to get rid of the things they don’t know what todo with.”

The Great American Cleanup will allow people to get rid of forfree large items that normally would have to be taken to alandfill, where a fee is exacted for dumping.

“If you don’t give people a chance to take it off legitimately,it will end up on the roadsides and in the ditches,” Richardsonsaid. “This way it can be properly disposed of in the landfills forfree.”

After the trash bins spend the weekend in District One, theywill placed near the Brignall voting precinct at the intersectionof Howard Road and Brignall Road on April 10-14; at theintersection of Highway 51 and Brister Street on April 17-21; atthe intersection of Jackson Liberty Road and West Lincoln Drive onApril 24-28; and at James Case’s store on California Road on May1-5. The trash bins will occupy vacant lots near all locations.

Keep Lincoln County Beautiful is asking that old tires andappliances be placed on the ground near the trash bins and thatpeople refrain from bringing environmentally hazardous materialssuch as oil and paint. The organization is also requesting thatregular household garbage not be brought to the trash bins.

Keep Lincoln County Beautiful Coordinator Ronnie Durr is hopingfor a large response to the project this year, noting that it hasbeen successful in years past. He is, however, expecting theoverall tonnage of items disposed of to decrease.

“We’re hoping that last year it peaked, and this year it willeither go down or flatten out,” Durr said.

Durr said the main reason he is expecting the collected tonnageto drop is recycled white goods (appliances) have “had a fantasticprice” on them. He said many people are choosing to haul their oldappliances to the scrap yard and collect payment rather thandisposing if the items outright.

“It’s a big help to us, because those white goods were making upabout one-third of the overall weight we collect,” Durr said. “It’sgreat for us, because it shows that people are cleaning up aroundtheir place, getting rid of that stuff and making a little money,too.”

Durr said the most abundant items collected for disposal duringthe Great American Cleanup were old tires, which are collectedthrough the assistance of a Mississippi Department of EnvironmentalQuality tire grant. The tires are shipped to a company in Jacksonthat grinds them up and recycles the material in the production ofvarious items, such as rubber floor mats for automobiles.