Modern garbage bins uptown mark latest step towards containerizing NYC's trash

A new crop of high-tech trash containers began landing on streets in upper Manhattan this month, the latest step in the sanitation department’s years-long effort to banish piles of trash bags from city sidewalks.

The department’s new “Empire Bins” are now set up outside eight uptown schools, where they’re used to collect compost, recycling and garbage. By the start of June, officials plan to install them in parking spots in areas of Harlem and Morningside Heights — replacing an old set of streetside bins that were put in place in the neighborhoods in 2023 as part of a pilot program.

Unlike the old bins, the new bins are locked and can only be opened by building staff or sanitation workers with special electronic keycards issued by the city. The new models are also designed to be emptied by a new fleet of garbage trucks that can lift containers from the side rather than the rear. Officials said those trucks will begin to service city streets by June.

The sanitation department last year ordered 1,500 Empire Bins from the Spanish company Contenur. Sanitation officials said more than two-thirds have already arrived, a sign the delivery would not be affected by President Trump’s ongoing threats to raise tariffs on foreign imports.

City officials hope to install the bins in front of residential buildings across the five boroughs in the coming years as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ “trash revolution” that aims to containerize New York’s notorious mountains of garbage.

Businesses and smaller residential buildings with nine or fewer units are already required to put out trash in containers. The sanitation department is still conducting an environmental review before installing bins outside larger buildings for trash collection.

Sanitation officials and residents have reported that the bins in upper Manhattan have already led to fewer rat sightings.