Timing and sorting will help cleanup collections go smoothly.
By Scott Taylor
Staff Writer

Twin Cities solid waste crews are hoping residents will make spring cleanup easier this year by keeping their trash sorted and by not putting it out too early.

Lewiston crews will begin collecting piles of bulky waste from city streets and sidewalks on Monday as part of the four-week annual spring cleanup. Auburn crews are scheduled to begin their cleanup the following week.

Most bulky items that don’t go into the regular trash are welcome, except for things such as gasoline engines and auto parts, liquids and flammables.

Lewiston Solid Waste Superintendent Rob Stalford said residents can help the city by keeping the piles sorted – furniture separate from scrap wood, separate from scrap metal, separate from brush and tree limbs.

“That changes a bit this year,” Stalford said. “Now we need to ask people to keep television sets and computer monitors away from their furniture piles and treat them like demolition stuff, like old Sheetrock and building materials.”

Old televisions can contain lead, and new state regulations require the cities to keep them in special place. Pressure-treated wood, which can contain arsenic, needs to be kept away from untreated “clean” wood.

“The other thing to keep in mind is that these piles can get pretty well picked over,” Stalford said.

That can leave a homeowner’s neatly separated piles in a jumble.

“So the idea there is not to put it out until it’s time for it be picked up,” Stalford said.

Cleanup collection schedules are tied to the regular garbage collection schedules.

In Lewiston:

• People who normally have their trash collected on Mondays and Tuesdays should set their cleanup items curbside Monday.

• People on the Wednesday collections schedule should put their cleanup items out by April 22.

• Those on the Thursday schedule should have their bulky waste out by April 28.

• The last week of cleanup collections begins on May 5, aimed at residents who have normal collections on Fridays.

In Auburn:

• Residents who have trash picked up on Mondays should have their cleanup items out by April 21.

• Auburn crews move to those with Tuesday collections by April 23 and to those with Wednesday collections by the 25th.

• Those with Thursday collections should have their stuff out by April 29.

• Auburn crews begin their last few days on May 1, for homes on the Friday collection schedule.

staylor@sunjournal.com