West Harlem becomes first neighborhood in North America to fully containerize trash

Residents of West Harlem can expect cleaner sidewalks and fewer rats as it officially becomes the first neighborhood in New York City (and North America) to containerize 100 percent of its trash. On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Commissioner Javier Lojan announced the first day of full service of the European-style on-street trash containers, dubbed Empire Bins, in Manhattan Community Board 9, which includes Morningside Heights, Manhattanville, and Hamilton Heights. As part of the pilot program, all residential buildings in the district are required to put trash in containers; buildings with 31 or more units will be required to use the Empire Bins.

“When we said four years ago that we were going to have cleaner streets and fewer vermin, the cynics rolled their eyes and said, ‘New York City is too big, government moves too slow, and no one will ever beat the rats,'” Adams said in a statement. “But we refused to take no for an answer, and our Empire Bins are striking back at rats and garbage in West Harlem.”

The announcement marks a significant milestone in the Adams administration’s efforts to clean up city streets, with trash containerization standing as one of the mayor’s top priorities.

The DSNY rolled out about 1,100 bins over the last five weeks, assigning them to individual buildings instead of entire blocks, with key cards given to property owners for access.

Empire Bins can hold about 794 gallons of waste, or about 25 large 32-gallon trash bags, according to the city.

Buildings with 10 to 30 units have been given the option to either have an Empire Bin assigned to them or to use smaller “wheelie bins” for their trash. Following a comprehensive outreach initiative, the city said roughly half of those buildings chose to use the Empire Bins.

Trash is collected from the special bins three times a week by the city’s new automated side-loading garbage trucks. These trucks, first introduced in DSNY’s “Future of Trash” report, use side-loading technology specifically designed to service the on-street bins.

Currently, 16 of the trucks, developed in collaboration with designers in Italy, Hicksville, and Brooklyn, are operating on the streets of West Harlem.

While some residents have complained that the new bins take up too many parking spots, DSNY says they have replaced only about four percent of the neighborhood’s spaces, according to Gothamist. However, one of the biggest challenges so far has been double-parked cars blocking side-loading trucks from accessing the bins, according to the New York Times.

As of March 2024, all city businesses must place their trash in bins, and since November 2024, the same rule applies to residential buildings with up to nine units. Together, these regulations have containerized 70 percent of all city trash.

According to early data, containerization appears to be working. Since the new requirements took effect six months ago, 311 rat sighting complaints have dropped compared to the same period last year, according to a press release.

DSNY will closely examine the program’s results in the coming months, with a timeline for expansion beyond Manhattan CB 9 to be determined based on the agency’s discoveries.

“When I started as a sanitation worker in 1999, the idea that we could get where we are today seemed impossible,” DSNY Acting Commissioner Lojan said. “But in the 26 years since then, I’ve seen too many good people get hurt from throwing bags or sick with leptospirosis, and I’ve seen too many neighborhoods asked to live with garbage juice and rats all over their sidewalks.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way and today marks a giant leap forward for our city — the completion of a signature Adams administration initiative, a revolution in how we handle our trash.”

Expanding the program is expected to be complex and costly, potentially requiring the removal of more than 50,000 parking spots and hundreds of millions of dollars for trucks and bins over the next decade, according to the Times.

Despite its early success, the initiative remains a pilot program, and any future permanent program will depend on the next administration. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, currently leading in the polls, has expressed support for containerization.

City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander has also backed the program, calling for its expansion and wider use of on-street containers. Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, polling second, has said the initiative should go even further.

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