Southampton Village, NY Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Chapter 74 of the Village Code, adopted in 1955, is the Village's littering chapter, and § 74-2 is its core prohibition. It bars any person from casting, throwing, placing or depositing, or causing that to be done, any paper, throwaways, handbills, debris, rubbish, refuse, leaves or other foreign matter in or upon any street, lane, alley or public place in the Village of Southampton. The chapter defines persons to include all firms, corporations and other entities, so a landscaping or contracting business is covered the same as an individual.

Leaves get a narrow exception. During the period the Superintendent of Public Works sets for fall pickup, the owner of property abutting a public street, or an employee of that owner but not an independent contractor, can place leaves from that property along the shoulder, not in the roadway, in long, narrow piles or in biodegradable paper bags (§ 74-2.1). An independent contractor is expected to dispose of leaves at a disposal site, and § 74-2 prohibits the contractor from placing them on the street right-of-way.

Residents carry their own duties. People with permanent quarters on a street cannot use the public receptacles and must keep private receptacles at the rear of their property (§ 74-3). Discarded paper and other material that wind can move must be securely confined (§ 74-4), and the receptacles must be emptied regularly and removed to the Town Dump or another place of disposal that eliminates the material permanently from the Village (§ 74-5). Section 66-3 separately prohibits throwing or depositing litter or refuse, including household waste, on Town-owned historic burial grounds within the Village.

Penalties come from Chapter 1. Section 74-7 sends every Chapter 74 violation to Article II of Chapter 1, where § 1-17 sets a fine not exceeding $2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 15 days, or both, plus community service the court directs.