The Next Phase of New York City’s ‘Trash Revolution’ Is Here

At sunrise in Manhattan on a recent morning, Anthony J. Martin jumped out of a garbage truck and gave a thumbs up for the driver to lower a set of red mechanical arms to pick up a trash bin from the street. The bin rose high into the air and a cascade of trash bags fell into the truck.

As a sanitation worker in New York City for almost two decades, Mr. Martin is well accustomed to tossing bags of acrid, leaky garbage from the curb into the back of a truck.

Now he is pioneering a new approach that starts in one neighborhood this week and could expand across the city — part of what city officials are calling a “trash revolution.”

All large residential buildings in Community Board 9 in the West Harlem neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights are now required to use so-called Empire Bins that hold 800 gallons of trash. Hundreds of parking spots were removed to accommodate the 1,000 European-style bins lining the streets, serviced by 16 new side-loading garbage trucks.