By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
It’s time to clean out the house, garage and storage sheds and get rid of the stuff free of charge.
Rowan County will host its third annual special waste recycling event on Thursday.
The event is open to residents and businesses.
The county will accept all the stuff that’s hard to get rid of ó paint, pesticides, tires, cell phones .
Two previous recycling events have been very successful, according to Lori Swaim, county recycling director.
Swaim encourages everyone to look around and see what they may want to bring.
Last year, a man found a 50 gallon barrel of DDT at his parents’ or grandparents’ home.
He called to ask if the county would accept it.
Swaim said although usage of DDT has been banned in this country for years, she assured him he wouldn’t get in any trouble.
He brought the barrel in and appeared to be pleased to get rid of it, she said.
For the first time the county will take mercury.
This comes after many inquiries from residents. Swaim said there appears to be quite a bit of liquid mercury around the county. “Children used to play with it a lot,” she said.
The county’s goal is to find uses for much of the material and ensure proper disposal of other materials.
For example, old propane tanks and oxygen tanks will be sent to companies that refurbish and reuse them.
Paint that is usable will be put at the Julian Road convenience site, where the county operates a paint swap. Swaim said they have a lot of paint available at the Julian Road site, which is near the Animal Shelter.
The county will accept everything from computers to oxygen tanks, tires and pesticides. Mercury will also be accepted.
Pesticides are collected through the state pesticide disposal assistance program.
The recycling event will run from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday at the County Recycling Processing Center at 1102 North Long St., East Spencer.
Pesticides will be accepted only from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday.
Here’s a list of items that will be accepted:
Auto/truck batteries, appliances, scrap metal, home textiles, styrofoam peanuts, paint, tires (no rims);
Fire extinguishers, helium tanks, oxygen tanks, pesticide containers, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, used clothing, toys, used motor oil;
Antifreeze, used oil filters, toner cartridges, eyeglasses, hearing aids, hardback books; andComputers, including monitors, hard drives and laptops.
Anyone with large quantities of any materials or questions should contact Lori Swaim at 704-216-8589.