Automobile tires and old furniture are among the things that will not be picked up.

AUBURN – Public works crews are doing double duty this week: picking up homeowner’s trash and reminding them of what they won’t collect during this year’s spring cleanup.

“We put a lot of effort into advertising that we were going to change spring cleanup, but some people just didn’t get it,” said Sid Hazelton, assistant public works director.

City crews have been knocking on doors to remind homeowners that the city no longer collects some things, such as automobile tires and old furniture.

The city changed spring cleanup as part of last year’s budget cutting. According to this year’s plan, crews will collect only things that can turn a profit, such as scrap metal, old appliances and clean scrap lumber and brush. The brush and lumber can be chipped up and sold to biomass generators around the East Coast and the old stoves and other appliances can be broken down into scrap metal and sold.

Homeowners will have to get rid of the rest of the refuse on their own. Bulky trash such as furniture and mattresses, tires, computer monitors, propane tanks and hazardous wastes won’t be collected. Property owners can take those items to Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. themselves for $85 per ton.

Cleanup collections began Monday. Crews have had to bypass several piles of old tires and furniture, Hazelton said. When they find uncollectible trash, crews try to talk to the property owner or leave a note on the door. City officials are tracking that garbage and expect property owners to move it themselves.

Spring cleanup in Auburn continues Wednesday in the Lake Street neighborhood. Crews will continue working south until mid-May.

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