By Amy-Lynn Albertson
North Carolina Cooperative Extension

Instead of spring cleaning, it’s time for some fall purging. Oct. 7-11 is Spruce Up Week in Salisbury. During Spruce Up Weeks, City of Salisbury residents can place items at the curb on their regular collection day before 7 a.m.

The city of Salisbury Public Works Department will pick up your old appliances, tires without rims (up to 5), and extra bagged trash. This is a great time to encourage a neighborhood cleanup.

This collection is for residents living inside the city limits of Salisbury only. Please bring extra bags, boxes, and bins of household items, trash, clothes, etc.

• Furniture (couches, love seats, dressers, recliners, chairs, tables, regular furniture)
• Mattresses and box springs, all sizes
• Old appliances
• Miscellaneous items such as treadmills, exercise equipment, bicycles, vacuums, lamps, artificial Christmas trees
• Lawnmowers are accepted — they must be drained of all fuel.
• Grills are accepted — must have gas tanks removed
• Tires without rims (limit 5 tires or less per location)
• (Tires won’t be picked up on your Spruce Up Week collection day. Please leave them at the curb, and they will be collected the following Monday. Tires are collected and taken to a separate facility, not the Rowan County Landfill.

Then, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, you can take your old electronics and hazardous household waste to the Rowan County Recycling Center.

What are you doing with that tube television collecting dust in your basement, that old laptop that doesn’t work or appliances that are long dead? Don’t forget that iPhone 8 or the expired fire extinguishers. The 2024 annual Special Waste Recycling Event is on Oct. 9. From 8 a.m.-5 p.m., you can bring your unwanted prescription and non-prescription medications, paint, hearing aids, toner cartridges, automotive fluids and much more. However, you cannot bring your regular household trash.

Look under your kitchen sink and get rid of any old household cleaning products. Trust me, you will feel so much better once you get all of that “stuff” out of your house and know that it has been disposed of or recycled correctly. Go out in your garden shed or wherever you store your pesticides and check all your labels. Pesticides like RoundUp, Sevin, etc. can go bad and expire. They lose their efficacy over time. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services offers a Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program to assist the citizens of N.C. Farmers, gardeners and homeowners can safely dispose of unwanted pesticides through the program.

In 1980, the NCDA&CS led the nation with the Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program, the first program of its kind. This stewardship program has properly collected and disposed of over 3 million pounds of pesticides from our state. In fiscal year 2024, N.C. collected over 150,000 pounds of pesticides. Pesticide stewardship protects human health and the environment. Collection sites vary from year to year across the 100 counties in N.C. The goal is to provide disposal opportunities to all citizens by alternating locations.

Residents can visit neighboring counties to dispose of pesticides. When property owners remove potentially hazardous materials, they help reduce the risk of accidental poisoning of children, pets and livestock. Improper disposal of pesticides can cause environmental damage. Pesticides can stop the bacterial action in a septic tank or contaminate a municipal sewage system, surface and groundwater. It is essential to dispose of these items safely and correctly.

Bring your unwanted pesticides on Oct. 9 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to the Rowan County Recycling and Processing Center at 1102 N. Long Street Extension, East Spencer. Any labeled pesticide products, whether insecticide, herbicide, rodenticide or fungicide, will be accepted. These pesticides are containerized, weighed and loaded into a transport vehicle. The materials are transported out-of-state for incineration. If you have containers larger than 5 gallons, please contact Amy-Lynn Albertson, Rowan County Extension Director, at 704-216-8970, and she will make arrangements beforehand. This waste recycling event will also be accepting: Prescription and non-prescription medications, tires (limit 5- no rims), fire extinguishers, tanks: helium, oxygen, propane, all computer equipment, cell phones, all electronics (anything with a plug), fertilizers, automotive fluids, thermometers, thermostats, fluorescent bulbs, washers, dryer, refrigerators, eyeglasses, hearing aids, toner cartridges, and household cleaning products. For information on recycling or pesticide management, contact the Rowan County Extension Center at 704-216-8970 or on the web at http://rowan.ces.ncsu.edu.

Amy-Lynn Albertson is director of the Rowan County Extension.