Long Island towns suspend trash collection because of snowstorm

Residents of at least eight Long Island towns and two cities 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, the Town of Oyster Bay and the Town of Islip suspended garbage and recycling collection on Monday. Pickups will resume later in the week.

The cities of Glen Cove and Long Beach also canceled trash pickups on Monday, according to their websites. 

"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 pickup 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.

Islip also moved Monday trash collections to Thursday.

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. 

In Glen Cove, residents who normally have trash picked up on Monday will get pickups on Tuesday, residents who usually get Tuesday collections will get pickups on Wednesday and yard waste and metal collections usually done on Wednesdays will be skipped this week.

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

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.