New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced the next step in the Trash Revolution – the release of a Request for Proposals to procure new, European-style, on-street containers that will pave the way for citywide, residential containerization in New York City.
Rollout is planned to begin in Manhattan Community District 9 in Spring 2025, with full citywide expansion expected to follow after community outreach and an environmental review.
“Trash belongs in bins, not on our streets – but for half a century, New Yorkers have had to put up with mountains of garbage and hordes of rats lining our commutes,” said Adams. “We’re saying ‘no’ to that status quo. We’ve already put seven billion pounds of business trash a year into bins, and we’re not stopping there. These new on-street containers will allow us to bring the ‘Trash Revolution’ to our large buildings, and they’ll bring us that much closer to the day when there are no more black bags on our streets.”
This RFP addresses up to 60 percent of residential trash: buildings with 31 or more units, which account for 50 percent of all residential trash, will be required to use stationary on-street containers; buildings with 10 to 30 units, which account for 10 percent of all residential trash, will be given the choice between containerization via stationary on-street containers like larger buildings or via individual wheelie bins like smaller buildings.
Last year, the administration announced all residential buildings with nine or fewer units, which account for 40 percent of all residential trash, will be required to use secure, sealed individual wheelie bins beginning in fall 2024 and the official NYC Bin beginning in the summer of 2026.
Because buildings of 31 units or more generate enough waste to support at least one European-style on-street container, each building will have its own container(s) for exclusive use of its residents. Unique to New York City, the containers will not be shared between multiple buildings, better matching our City’s density and allow buildings to more easily maintain and clean the containers.
The European-style on-street containers will be approximately four cubic yards, holding the equivalent of 28 large bags of trash. These containers will be lifted by a fleet of Automated Side-Loading trucks.
Final selection of the on-street containers will be determined by DSNY’s evaluation committee and will be based on a thorough technical evaluation, focused on aesthetics, durability, ease of cleaning, price, and other factors that will make the selected containers appropriate for eventual use by all large residential buildings across the five boroughs.
The Community District 9 roll out builds on the success of DSNY’s current 10-block, 16 school containerization pilot program in West Harlem, where rat sighting complaints dropped by a whopping 68 percent.
This only relates to the containerization of residential trash, about 50 percent of all trash in New York City. The other 50 percent is commercial, for which the Adams Administration has already put rules in place. Since March 1, 2024, all businesses in New York City are required to put their trash in bins.
The containerization requirement for buildings with 1-9 residential units goes into effect this fall.