Emporia’s Clean Sweep campaign already has brought in about 240 tons of trash, with two weekends remaining in the four-week effort.
Phil Dillon, one of the organizers and a volunteer for the project, said that the past Friday and Saturday clean-ups resulted in an approximately 50 percent increase in tonnage over the first two days of Clean Sweep.
A breakdown of trash showed these rounded tonnages from the second weekend:
- Brush and trees, 5 tons
- Construction debris, 60 tons
- Common trash, 50 tons
- Iron, 10 tons
- Tires, about 10 tons
- Hazardous household waste, 4 tons
- Recyclables, 3/4 ton
- Electronic waste, approximately 4 tons
“That is incredible,” Dillon said of the two-day total for electronic waste. “And there’s more out there.”
Dillon said that 53 volunteers logged 306 hours of work during last weekend’s clean-up, which ran from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Jones Park on the Lincoln Street side and on Center Street above 15th Avenue.
The next clean-up will be on Friday and Saturday at the parking lot near the ball diamonds at Peter Pan Park, and at Fremont Park, at Fourth Avenue and Exchange Street.
Volunteers still are needed to help unload trash as area residents bring pickups and vehicles to the dump areas. Volunteers also go out in the area to pick up items from elderly or handicapped people who are unable to load the trash themselves.
Volunteers will need to call Patty Gilligan at the city offices, 343-4275, or sign up on Friday or Saturday at Peter Pan Park.