Amherst, NY Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Town Code § 169-11 makes it unlawful for any person to "dump, drop, deposit, abandon or otherwise dispose of any garbage, refuse, rubbish, debris, recyclable material or other waste" in or on any public right-of-way, road, street, highway or alley in the Town, outside the Village of Williamsville, unless it is contained and prepared as the waste chapter requires. Subsection B extends the same prohibition to any privately owned land in the Town, again outside Williamsville, meaning a property owner cannot even authorize illegal dumping on their own lot.

Subsection C carves out one narrow exception: clean fill made only of rock, concrete, soil, stone or clay may be dumped on private land for grading with the owner's written consent, or without written consent if it is part of a permitted site plan, building permit or plumbing permit; fill can never go into a wetland or wetland buffer in violation of state, federal or Town law. Subsection D separately bars dumping garbage, debris, yard waste or fill into any waterway, Town drainage system, receiver catch basin or manhole outside Williamsville. of the collection day, and failing to do so is itself a violation.