Gallup schedules June community trash cleanups across city neighborhoods

Gallup residents can join city cleanup crews on June 5, June 12 and June 26, from 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., as the city pushes trash removal into some of the busiest parts of town before summer heat makes the work harder. Volunteers on June 5 will meet at the Municipal Court parking lot and cover the Boardman Avenue to 2nd Street area. The June 12 cleanup will start at the Rex Museum downtown and focus on 2nd Street going south. The final June 26 effort will gather in the empty lot across from Allsups on West Highway 491 and work the southbound area there. The city says it will provide drinks, snacks and supplies, and the work can count toward community service hours, a detail that may draw students, youth groups and other volunteers.

The June events run alongside Gallup’s 16th Annual Community Cleanup, a separate program that stretches from April 25 through August 29, 2026, for City of Gallup solid-waste residential customers only. County residents are not included. For that curbside pickup, residents are told to place unwanted junk, bulk items, appliances and furniture at the curb by 8:00 a.m. on the assigned day, away from obstructions. Loose debris must go in tied bags, secured boxes or containers, and household hazardous waste must be separated and clearly labeled. The 2026 schedule assigns Area 1 to April 25, Area 2 to May 16, Area 3 to June 6, Area 4 to June 27, Area 5 to July 18, Area 6 to August 1, Area 7 to August 15 and Area 8 to August 29.

City officials have framed the cleanup work as more than a one-day volunteer drive. The Solid Waste Division says it hosts the annual cleanup each spring and summer, and city crews dispose of the items the same day. Residents who haul refuse to the transfer station themselves will be charged fees, which makes the city’s curbside system an important option for households trying to clear out bulky waste without extra expense. In a city where downtown blight and long-vacant properties have been tied to health and housing concerns, the cleanup schedule also raises a familiar accountability question: whether Gallup sees these efforts as routine maintenance, or as a response to persistent dumping and blight hotspots that still need steady resident participation.

Keep Gallup Clean & Beautiful says its mission is to inspire and educate people to improve and beautify Gallup every day, and the group has pushed youth, families and neighbors to pick up litter around properties and city right-of-ways. The city also tied cleanup work to broader beautification goals in 2020, when it received a $30,300 litter control and beautification grant from the New Mexico Tourism Department for supplies, advertising, recycling materials, community gardening and youth empowerment. That local effort mirrors the broader Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup, which says it engages more than 300,000 volunteers and participants nationwide each year.