Binghamton, New York is offering something new for its residents regarding their trash.

For one week, from May 21 to May 27, Binghamton is offering bulk garbage pickup for free.

According to PressConnects, residents are encouraged to leave one large item of waste that doesn’t fit in a regular sized garbage bag. Typically, residents have to pay three dollars per bulk item to have it marked for crews to pick up and dispose of.

Mayor Richard David said that the waste management strategy is to clean up the community as Binghamton University students leave.

“During this time of year, large items such as mattresses, rugs and air conditioners are usually left for weeks after students move out,” Davis said. “This year, the city is taking proactive steps to quickly remove these items and other trash.”

Under Binghamton city code, hazardous waste items like car batteries, tires, oil, plants and others are prohibited from a pickup.

These strategies, though only for one week, can help clean up the environment throughout the city, as well as spread some much-needed awareness throughout the country.

In an average person’s lifetime, they will throw away more than 600 times their weight in garbage. Every day, each person generates more than four pounds of trash. Leaving these trash items on curbs for weeks at a time is not a good solution.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle — the “3 Rs” — is a much better strategy.

Reduce
Decreasing overall consumption is a great way to start. Reducing the amount of things we buy and have will inevitably reduce the amount of stuff we throw away. It’s a difficult transition to make since we have been brought up to “buy, buy, buy” everything we set our eyes on, but it can really make a difference if we reduce.

Reuse
Have that old beach towel that you never use stuffed in your closet? Well, that towel just became your new car rag. Don’t use hundreds of non-reusable paper towels to clean up your messes when you could reuse items to help the environment.

Recycle
It costs about $50 per ton to send trash to a landfill, but only $30 per ton to recycle. Recycling should be done much more in this country, but, unfortunately, it’s not. There are so many ways recyclable items can be used. The only way they should not be used is taking up space in landfills.

Take care of yourselves, take care of your garbage, and take care of the world.