Hempstead, NY Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 128-70A of the Town Code makes source separation mandatory for residential premises: newspapers, glass bottles and jars, metal food and beverage cans, plastic food and household product containers made from high-density polyethylenes or polyethylene terephthalate, yard waste, metal recyclables and construction and demolition debris must all be separated from the regular waste stream. The Department of Sanitation supplies a recycling container to every household in a Town solid waste collection district under Section 128-70B, and residents must clean glass, metal and plastic containers and remove caps before placing them curbside, tie or bag newspapers separately, and arrange a special pickup with the Department for larger metal items or construction debris.

Section 128-71 extends similar rules to multiresidential complexes of four or more units, letting the Commissioner require a central storage area or specific containers depending on a building's size and layout. Section 128-72 goes further for commercial, industrial and institutional establishments: in addition to the residential recycling categories, businesses must also recycle cardboard and office paper wherever an economic market exists for reselling them, though a business may apply to the Commissioner for an exemption if it can show insufficient generation or no market for a particular material.

Businesses using private carters must still meet these separation duties, and commercial establishments are required to file monthly written reports to the Commissioner identifying their recycler, the materials recycled, the quantities involved, and the markets used. The Town's stated policy behind Article VI, adopted under the New York State Solid Waste Management Act of 1988, is to reduce the volume of solid waste sent to the Hempstead Resource Recovery Facility and conserve reusable materials.