Long Island towns delay trash, recycling pickups as blizzard cleanup continues

The blizzard that dumped 30 inches of snow on parts Long Island has shaken up life's daily rhythms, including trash pickup for residents of at least seven towns. 

Officials in the Towns of Oyster Bay, Islip, Babylon, Hempstead, Riverhead, Smithtown and Brookhaven cancelled garbage and recycling services on Tuesday. In posting on town websites and on social media, they said that crews required more time to clear municipal roads.

"Garbage and recycling pickup has been cancelled until Thursday so that all crews can be dedicated to snow removal throughout the week," a post on Oyster Bay's Facebook page read. "Please keep your garbage and recycling cans off the street and away from curbs. Plows will continue operating on local streets."

The post noted that pickup would resume as usual on Thursday.

In Islip, a social media post noted that "collection will resume on your normally scheduled pickup day this week."

Huntington officials wrote on social media that collection was on but the town would make a "best efforts" attempt to collect garbage on Tuesday. "If your street is missed tomorrow due to impassable conditions, you will be allowed double the amount of refuse placed curbside on Friday."

In Babylon, residents are encouraged to "hold trash and put it out for collection on Friday," according to a social media post.

In Hempstead Town, garbage and recycling scheduled for Monday and Tuesday were cancelled, according to the town's website. The town will have a special collection service on Wednesday, and regular pickup will resume on Thursday and Friday. This does not cover village collection services nor those run by independently-run sanitation districts.

Pickup will resume in Smithtown "on your next normally scheduled service day" for those scheduled for Tuesday, a social media post said.

Southold doesn't have residential trash pick up, but the town dump where residents self haul their trash and recyclables was closed Tuesday. Supervisor Al Krupski Jr. said it will reopen on Wednesday.

"There's so much snow; we don't want to have people coming and going," he said in an interview on Tuesday. "Let everybody clean up properly and be safe."

Trash disposal was likely another point of storm prep for Southold residents. Krupski said he was at the town's dump on Sunday, when it "was pretty busy."

"People planned ahead," he said.

The Town of East Hampton said on social media that its recycling center would be closed on Tuesday. Riverhead's garbage pickup is scheduled to resume Wednesday, a town spokesperson said.

Newsday's Tara Smith and Ted Phillips contributed to this story.

Check back for updates on this developing story.