Nearly 100 tons of trash not normally picked up by the city of Clinton were removed from local homes — and curbs — during a five-day period this month.

Residents wishing to get rid of items normally not picked up by the city as part of regular trash collection were given one week this month to set them curbside and watch them disappear. Designating Oct. 12-16 as Fall Clean Up Week, the city enjoyed yet another successful campaign with the collection of 93.53 tons (187,060 pounds) of items taken to the Sampson County Landfill, officials said.

The list of items able to be collected included chairs, televisions, couches, washers and dryers, refrigerators, mattresses and box springs, air conditioners, freezers and dishwashers. There has also been the occasional lawn mower, and even a motorcycle, collected in previous cleanup efforts.

The city has held the biannual cleanup weeks — one in the fall, one in spring — as opportunities for residents to pitch in as part of the overall effort to improve communities and prevent blight. Officials have touted the weeks as a continual success.

There were plenty more items picked up and subsequently discarded this year, according to numbers provided by public works director Chris Doherty. The statistics included the collection of 55 chairs, 15 couches, 42 mattresses and box springs, 88 furniture and other wood items, 149 tires, 20 loads of limbs, 18 televisions, three washers, two heaters and a freezer. There were 147 other miscellaneous items collected, which were not categorized by the city’s public works department.

Aside from items not able to be processed by the landfill, including oil-based paints, motor oils, herbicides, pesticides and auto parts, there are not many items the city will not pick up.

The 149 tires, at roughly 30 pounds a tire, made up 2.23 tons of the total weight alone, according to city numbers.

And the cost for holding the cleanup has been offset by the sale of scrap metal collected by city workers. This year, there was 5,730 pounds of metal (2.87 tons) collected, good for a return of $315.15 upon the sale of it by the city. That is more money than the city was able to garner as a result of last year’s fall effort.

Among the tonnage collected during the 2008 cleanup campaign was 4.6 tons of metal, the sale of which produced less than $300 to offset the cost of the effort. The 93 tons of trash collected this fall was also the highest in recent years for the fall version of the city cleanup. The city collected 79 tons of trash during its 2007 Fall Clean Up Week and another 83 tons in 2008.

Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 121, or by email at sicrime@myclintonnc.com.