Amherst, NY Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Section 7-2-4(D) applies to dumpsters and refuse containers in the R-4, MFR-4A, MFR-5, MFR-6, MFR-7, MHR-8 and nonresidential districts. Dumpster areas must be confined to the location shown on an approved site plan, and placing them between the front building face and the roadway needs Planning Board or Planning Director approval. Every dumpster and refuse container must be visually screened on all sides from adjacent properties and public or private rights of way using an opaque material such as shrubs, walls, fences or berms, and stored materials cannot protrude above the screen.

Where plantings are used for screening, they must form a fully opaque screen within two years of planting. If the enclosure uses gates, the gate material must visually conceal 100 percent of the contents, and the gates must stay closed except while the dumpster is being loaded or unloaded or when someone needs access for maintenance. Setback distances differ by district: in residential districts, dumpsters must meet the setbacks set in § 3-15-6, while in nonresidential districts the setback is five feet from an adjoining nonresidential property line and ten feet from an adjoining residential property line.

These standards sit within the town's broader landscaping, buffers and screening chapter, § 7-2, which the Commissioner of Building enforces alongside site plan approval conditions.