Schenectady Proposes New Trash Pickup System, Eliminating Stickers

Trash pickup is notoriously a pain in New York's Capital Region. There's always some issue, uncertainty, or just straight up nuisance to leaving your unwanted garbage out.

Schenectady may take the cake though, but the city is finally hoping to streamline the process for good...

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The "Sticker Program"

Schenectady's sticker program came from a good place. The city wanted to cut down on the amount of garbage being disposed of, and began a program that charged for pickup of bulk items, like beds, couches, and dressers.

Unfortunately, all this did was confuse and infuriate residents, who didn't like the idea of having to pay even more for their trash to be picked up. After a few months, the city realized that the confusion could lead to an increase in illegal dumping, which they desperately wanted to avoid.

So, another change needed to be made...

Evaluating the System

The city started this evaluation by pausing the sticker program on March 20th. The program will be suspended for 90 days, until June 19th. This means that, for the time being, residents will not have to pay extra for removal of bulk items.

There are some that don't follow that exactly, appliances such as washers, dryers, stoves, and refrigerators can only be picked up on days marked with red on the Waste Collection Calendar.

Okay, so this helps, but does it fix the underlying issue? No, but the hope is that the 90 day period will give the city time to find a better solution, one that works both for the city and its residents.