Long Island towns suspend trash collection because of snow

Residents of seven Long Island towns have one less thing to worry about when shoveling snow on Monday: putting out the trash.

Officials in the Town of Hempstead, the Town of Huntington, the Town of North Hempstead, the Town of Babylon, the Town of Brookhaven, the Town of Riverhead and the Town of Oyster Bay suspended garbage and recycling collection on Monday. Pickups will resume later in the week.

“The town’s priority right now is plowing and salting and making sure our roads can be safely traveled,” North Hempstead spokesperson Umberto Mignardi said in a statement. “Our crews are working through the night and tomorrow, so we anticipate regularly scheduled trash pickup will resume this Tuesday, provided the storm passes.”

In Hempstead, residents with regularly scheduled pick up on Tuesday will have it on Wednesday, according to the town’s website.

In Huntington, regularly scheduled Tuesday and Friday pickup will continue as scheduled, town officials said in a website post.

Babylon officials in a post on its website urged residents not to put their garbage out Monday, “as containers may become buried under significant snowfall.”

Brookhaven moved collection from Monday to Thursday, with residents warned that “Thursday collections may occur later than usual due to increased volume from double collection,” the town website said. 

In Riverhead, garbage pickup was canceled Monday, according to a post on the town’s website. The post did not include information on when collection would resume. 

In Oyster Bay, sanitation and recycling pickup scheduled for Monday was moved to Tuesday, and pickup scheduled for Tuesday was moved to Wednesday, officials said in a website post. 

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.