It’s getting a little warmer and the days are getting a little longer, which means two things: spring is around the corner, and so is the city of Clinton’s annual Spring Clean Up Week.

The City Council has designated April 12-16 as Spring Clean Up Week, its annual five-day period.

Leading up to, and throughout the annual cleanup weeks — the city holds one in the spring and one in the fall — residents are urged to set aside items for collection not generally accepted in residential trash. By placing those items at the curb on their normal collection day, residents can watch the items disappear and rid themselves of an eyesore in the process.

“As is customary in the spring, we have our Spring Clean Up Week,” said Chris Doherty, director of the city’s Public Works & Utilities Department. “During this time we suspend the regular garbage rules and regulations. The only exception to the suspension of the rules is items that are not accepted at the landfill.”

Items able to be collected include furniture, household appliances, tires and tree limbs. There are a maximum of four tires able to be collected per home, and tree limbs can be no longer than 5 feet in length and 6 inches in diameter.

The city cannot collect items that are not able to be processed by the Sampson County Landfill, including auto parts, car and truck batteries, oil-based paints, motor oils, gasoline, herbicides and pesticides and demolished homes and sheds.

Over the years, hundreds tons of trash not normally collected as part of residential garbage collected has been able to be discarded through the city’s Spring program.

There was more than 139 tons of trash picked up during last year’s spring campaign, nearly double the amount collected during the 2008 effort, which saw 70 tons of trash collected. There were 89 tons of trash collected in the 2007 Spring Clean Up Week and 119 tons and 185 tons picked up in 2006 and 2005, respectively.

In addition to ridding their own areas of dust-catching eyesores, the city has held the cleanup weeks as opportunities for residents to pitch in as part of the overall effort to improve communities and prevent blight. City officials have touted the two annual five-day periods with doing just that.

Hundreds of tons of trash not normally collected are removed from homes, yards and streets through the effort, while the additional cost for holding the cleanup is offset by the sale of scrap metal collected by city workers. That biannual effort is not limited to the spring.

Last fall, more than 93 tons (187,000 pounds) of trash not normally picked up by the city of Clinton were removed from local homes — and curbs.

The cost of the additional seasonal cleaning by the city is often offset by the sale of metal.

Last spring, there was 16,660 pounds of scrap metal, or 8.33 tons, collected and sold to Sampson Salvage for $499.80.

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