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

Article I of Chapter 174, Dumps and Dumping, was adopted 1-4-1989 by L.L. No. 1-1989. Section 174-1(A) prohibits any person, firm or private or municipal corporation from placing, storing, depositing or dumping, for abandonment or otherwise, junk, metal, bricks, stones, plaster, lumber, metal tanks, barrels, tin cans or other metal containers, waste material or putrescibles of any nature on any public or privately owned lot, tract of land, street, lane, alley, park or reserve within the Town of Union, outside the corporate limits of any village. It also bars dumping an automobile or automobile body for abandonment.

Three 1995 additions from L.L. No. 5-1995 tighten the rule. Under § 174-1(B), no owner or occupant of a parcel can cause or allow solid waste, recyclable materials, rubbish, debris or garbage generated outside the parcel to be dumped there, and anything placed there, with or without the owner's knowledge or consent, must be removed immediately by the owner or occupant. Section 174-1(C) makes it a violation to put solid waste or recyclables on a parcel the person does not own, lease or lawfully occupy without the owner's explicit consent. Section 174-1(D) makes it unlawful to place at the curb or along the edge of street pavement outside the Villages of Endicott and Johnson City, or to discard or abandon there, solid waste generated outside the Town of Union or inside either village.

Section 174-2 adds that no construction and demolition debris disposal site can be established in the Town, regardless of size or term, without an Environmental Conservation Law Article 27 permit and compliance with Town zoning, land use and environmental rules.

Chapter 130 backs this up. Section 130-2 bars discarding garbage, rubbish, refuse or recyclables anywhere in the Town, private or public, except as the chapter provides. Evidence of a name or address found in illegally placed waste creates a presumption that the person is responsible, and the property owner is guilty of the violation regardless of who placed the waste. Section 130-8 bars disposing of waste collected outside the Town. Under § 130-6 the Commissioner of Public Works, the Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Services or the Code Enforcement Officer can order removal, and the Town invoices the owner. An invoice unpaid after 30 days is delinquent and carries an additional 12% fee, and unpaid invoices after October 31 go onto the Town property tax bill.