Lincoln County residents surrendered hundreds of tires and more than 15,000 pounds of metal and batteries at the Household Hazardous Waste Day last week. Now Solid Waste Coordinator Bob Knight is ready for the “Keep Lincoln County Beautiful 2025 Spring Cleanup.”

The spring cleanup event runs three consecutive Saturdays, starting April 26. It’s 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Brookhaven Transfer Station at 463 County Farm Lane NE.

Acceptable items for the spring cleanup on April 26, May 3 and May 10 include scrap metal, electronics, mattresses, furniture, white goods like washers and dryers, carpets and rugs and porcelain toilets and sinks.

Items not accepted include items collected last week — tires, paint, oil, fluorescent bulbs and batteries — as well as fuel, chemicals, vegetative debris, construction materials, oilfield pipes, pressurized containers and metal drums.

The spring cleanup is set up like a drive-through. Residents stay in their vehicles and crews inspect the items as they unload them to make sure they’re allowed. Knight asks that items in each load be grouped together if possible.

The spring cleanup days are open to Lincoln County residents. No scavenging of items is allowed.

While the spring cleanup multi-week event is organized each year, the Household Hazardous Waste Day comes only every two to five years.

In that one-day event April 19 at the Lincoln Civic Center, crews collected 956 tires, 12,780 pounds of metal, 2,489 pounds of batteries, drums of oil, lots of fluorescent bulbs, and enough containers of paint to fill two 30-yard containers.

“That’s pretty impressive,” Knight said. “It was a good turnout. Lincoln County really turns out for this kind of event.”

The metal will be recycled with the funds raised from it going back into Knight’s Solid Waste budget.

The tires were picked up by Southern Tire of Richland, which ensures Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality disposal requirements are met.

Complete Environmental of Purvis handles the bulk of the hazardous materials collected.

It costs the county about $60,000 to $80,000 to put on the Hazardous Waste Collection Day. A grant is up for grabs every two to five years that will help pay for about a third of the cost, Knight said. The other two-thirds comes out of the Solid Waste budget.

Knight is glad to see residents take advantage of the hazardous waste collection whenever the county can offer it because so many items are removed from the environment that found its way into illegal dump sites instead.

“It’s better than being on the creeks and on the side of the road, polluting the environment,” he said.

For questions concerning the next three Saturday spring cleanup events, contact Knight at 601-757-2568.