Excess trash week in Gastonia brings in odd items for pickup

GASTONIA, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — It's not the most glamorous job, but we sure are glad they do it.

"Oh, wet mattresses. Wet mattresses be the worst," said DJ. He and his two colleagues run one of the trash routes in Gastonia.

"Toilets with water still in it," DJ said when asked what weirder items they pick up. "Because you never know if it's urine in it or what's in it."

Law enforcement de-escalation facility coming to Gastonia

Most days are straight forward, but this week DJ's team is picking up large items free of charge, meaning they get a wide range of weird and sometimes unpredictable items. "For some reason, there are a lot of pianos," said Allison Brockman, Solid Waste Division Manager in Gastonia.

Twice a year, Gastonia offers to pick up bulky and unwanted items that might not fit in an average trash bin. Excess Trash Week is a service offered free of charge as a benefit to both residents and the city. "A lot of cities don't offer this service," Brockman said, "so it's definitely a great service to help keep items from being illegally dumped."

Over the course of this week, nine crews have collected north of 300 tons of excess trash. That's roughly 600,000 pounds — the weight of a Boeing 747.

"I used to work out a long time ago, but this is my gym now," DJ said. Gastonia is one of a handful of cities that has canceled its curbside recycling program . This, however, is different. "This is municipal solid waste," Brockman said. "These are items that need to be properly disposed of. For the majority of them, these are items that need to go to the landfill."

Excess Trash Week ended Friday, but residents can still put large items on the curb for a fee, which starts at $15.