Amy-Lynn Albertson: Salisbury, Rowan prepare for fall Spruce Up week, special waste event

Amy-Lynn Albertson: Salisbury, Rowan prepare for fall Spruce Up week, special waste event

Published 11:00 pm Saturday, October 3, 2026

Instead of spring cleaning, it’s time for some fall purging. Oct. 5-9 is Spruce Up Week in Salisbury. During Spruce Up Week, 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 old appliances, tires without rims (up to five) and extra bagged trash. It’s 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 for household items, trash, clothes and similar items.

• 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 five 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.)

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, 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 12 or the expired fire extinguishers.

The 2026 annual Special Waste Recycling Event is on Oct. 14. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., you can bring unwanted prescription and non-prescription medications, paint, hearing aids, toner cartridges, automotive fluids and more. However, you cannot bring your regular household trash. Look under your kitchen sink and get rid of 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 help N.C. residents. Farmers, gardeners and homeowners can safely dispose of unwanted pesticides through the program.

In 1980, the NCDACS 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 three 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 each year across N.C.’s 100 counties. 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 pesticide disposal can damage the environment. Pesticides can stop the bacterial action in a septic tank or contaminate a municipal sewage system, surface water and groundwater. Dispose of these items safely and correctly.

Bring your unwanted pesticides on Oct. 14 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to the Rowan County Recycling and Processing Center at 1102 North Long Street Extension, East Spencer. We will accept labeled pesticide products, including insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides and fungicides. This waste recycling event will also accept prescription and non-prescription medications, tires (limit five with 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, dryers, refrigerators, eyeglasses, hearing aids, toner cartridges and household cleaning products.

We containerize, weigh and load these pesticides into a transport vehicle. We transport the materials out of state for incineration. If you have containers larger than five gallons, please get in touch with Amy-Lynn Albertson at 704-216-8970, and she will make arrangements beforehand. For information on recycling or pesticide management, contact the Rowan County Extension Center at 704-216-8970 or visit http://rowan.ces.ncsu.edu.

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