Lincoln County citizens know and embrace that five-week periodevery spring that allows them to dump old appliances, trashworn-out couches and get rid of those old tires.

The only downside to the annual Great American Cleanup is thatit’s never allowed paint and chemicals – until now. This year’s bigcleanup will be preceded by a Household Hazardous Waste CollectionDay, allowing people to safely dispose of dangerous chemicalsnormally turned away from the landfill.

“It’s mainly to get ride of the things that are normally verydifficult for people to get rid of. It can be expensive – a lot ofthese things really have to be separated out,” said HomerRichardson, a member of Keep Lincoln County Beautiful and cleanuporganizer. “These kind of things can cause serious environmentalproblems.”

The hazardous waste collection will be held on Saturday, April2, from 8 a.m. until noon at the city dump on County Farm Road. Nocommercial waste will be accepted, but private citizens areencouraged to bring in materials like paint, oil, pesticide,vehicle fluids, cleaners, glue, polish, aerosols, batteries, tiresand many other items for safe disposal.

The Household Hazardous Waste Collection event is funded by aspecial grant that may not come around again soon, Richardson said.This year will mark the first time Lincoln County has held ahazardous waste disposal day in almost 10 years.

“We’re really encouraging people to take advantage of this. Wehave no idea how long it will be before we get another grant,” hesaid.

The weekend following the hazardous waste disposal day is whenthe big industrial trash bins will be rolled into place and theGreat American Cleanup will begin, an annual trash event well knownand well used by citizens from Lincoln County and even neighboringcounties.

The 2010 cleanup was a record-setting event, with 306 tons oftrash, 4,922 old tires, 27 tons of white goods like kitchenappliances and 70 batteries collected from all five countydistricts.

“Every year, people say, ‘I’m going to wait until that day comesup and I’m going to get rid of this stuff,'” said Lincoln CountyLitter Control Coordinator Ronnie Durr, a cleanup organizer. “Asalways, we’re looking for a good cleanup and we’re looking for itto decrease in volume. I’ve missed it every year, but I’m going togo out on a limb and say I hope it goes down this year.”

The 30-foot trash bins are put in place for four days – Thursdaythrough Sunday – at one location in each county district for fiveweekends. The bins are collected on Monday mornings.

The first bins will go out in District One on April 7 at anabandoned gas station on Monticello Street, just east of CountyFarm Road. They’ll reappear on April 14 in District Two at theintersection of Howard and Brignall roads.

District Three will get the bins on April 21 in Bogue Chitto atthe intersection of Highway 51 and Brister Street, and DistrictFour will follow on April 28 at the intersection of Jackson-LibertyRoad and West Lincoln Drive.

The final cleanup location will open on May 5 in District Fiveat James Case’s store on California Road.

The event is designed to allow people to shed large, bulky andhard-to-dispose-of items like furniture, mattresses, TVs, buildingmaterials and appliances. Appliances and other white goods shouldbe placed on the ground near the bins.

Scavenging is prohibited.

For more information on the Great American Cleanup, interestedpeople may e-mail Richardson at homerrichardson@hughes.net.