‘Empire Bins’ now in use for large buildings’ trash collection in NYC

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Large residential buildings in part of New York City will now have all their trash stored in on-street containers, Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday.

Hizzoner strained to connect the “Empire Bins” to the Star Wars franchise during the announcement in West Harlem, but the announcement marked a major milestone in his effort to modernize New York City’s trash collection.

“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.’ But we refused to take no for an answer, and our EmpireBins are striking back at rats and garbage in West Harlem,” he said. “As a result of our efforts, we now have a fully containerized neighborhood in Harlem — the first in North America — and have seen six straight months of fewer rat sightings with cleaner sidewalks and clearer corners.”

In his first term as mayor, Adams has pushed to take the city from the days of hot bags of garbage strewn across its sidewalks to a more modern era of containerized trash.

The buildings in West Harlem, many which were part of a pilot program last year, are the first structures larger than 31 dwelling units that will use stationary on-street containers. DSNY procured the containers from a vendor, Spain-based company Contenur, which was contracted for $7 million last year.

Department of Sanitation trucks retrofitted for mechanized side-loading collection will collect the on-street bins.

The city will exempt certain buildings from the requirements, including those that receive off-street collection or as determined by the department.

Buildings from 10-30 units will have the option of applying for the use of stationary on-street containers or storing their trash in rigid receptacles of 55 gallons or less with tight-fitting lids.

Staten Island would see minimal impact with fewer than 200 buildings with more than 30 units and only 250 buildings between 10-30 units.

Overall, the Staten Island share comprises a little less than 1% of those buildings in the five boroughs, according to DSNY. Most Staten Island residents in smaller buildings have been subject to trash containerization rules since November.

Placement of the on-street containers will be determined by DSNY in coordination with the city Department of Transportation.

Cleaning and maintenance of the containers and immediately around them will be the responsibility of building owners. For the pilot program, DSNY will procure the bins, but it’s unclear who will have to purchase the bins in any future iterations of the program.

DSNY may require alternate containerization methods based on things like the amount of waste a building generates.