After Labor Day weekend, New York City will no longer allow piles of black trash bags to sit on street curbs — attracting rats and befouling sidewalks — outside residential buildings with up to nine units.
The Sanitation Department will begin issuing summonses and fines Tuesday for owners of such buildings who don’t use city-sanctioned trash bins with secure lids, known as NYC Bins, to put out their garbage for collection and facilitate faster pickup. The rule has been in effect since June 1, with a warning period lasting through next Monday.
The start of enforcement is part of the city’s broader move toward containerizing all residential trash in the coming years — or what Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson called a “trash revolution” in a recent interview with The City Reporter.
“Unfortunately, the time for warnings is over and we will start writing those $50 tickets next week,” he said. Fines will increase up to $200 for repeat offenders.
The city issued nearly 30,000 warnings to affected buildings this summer, according to the department. The Bronx recorded the highest rate of warnings, with 9.3% of eligible properties receiving a warning.
Manhattan had the second-highest rate at 5.2%, despite having the fewest eligible buildings. Queens, the borough with the largest number of one- to nine-unit residential buildings, had the lowest rate of warnings, at 2.4%. Sanitation officials could not immediately say why The Bronx had the highest warning rate.
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A Shield in the War Against Rats
A residential containerization requirement has been in effect for nearly two years, with the city requiring building owners to use any lidded bin up to 55 gallons to contain trash. Now, officials are cracking down on holdouts who aren’t using NYC Bins, which go for $63 for the largest size from Home Depot and are also available through delivery apps including Uber Eats and Instacart.
The 25-, 35- and 45-gallon bins are supposed to improve city streetscapes and, with a rodent-resistant design, mitigate critters chewing through the black garbage bags that have long piled up on sidewalks. Meanwhile, Sanitation Department trucks are gradually being equipped with mechanical tippers to make collection easier.
Some building supers and managers, though, said they have already seen chewed-through holes in their city-issued trash bins. Rats have “razor-sharp” teeth, said Dominick Romeo, leader of the group NYC Building Supers — adding that he believes rodents bit through his Manhattan building’s trash bins.
Ann Korchak, board president of the advocacy group Small Property Owners of New York City, said rats have chewed through her own Manhattan building’s (non-city-sanctioned) trash bins too.
“There’s nothing in this world that is truly 100%-rat proof, right?” Anderson said. But in neighborhoods where waste containerization is implemented, the commissioner noted, there have been “substantially” fewer 311 complaints about rats.
Romeo and Korchak said they have heard complaints from some supers that Home Depot was out of NYC Bins ahead of the enforcement deadline, but Anderson said there were more than 15,000 in stock as of Thursday. The Sanitation Department is in frequent communication with the big-box chain to ensure the bins remain stocked at its stores, he added.
The next step in the city’s “trash revolution,” he said, is rolling out Empire Bins — European-style, sealed containers requiring an access card to open — for larger residential buildings this fall in Brooklyn Community District 2, which covers Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights. Those bins are expected to expand citywide by 2031, replacing nearly 30,000 parking spots so that sanitation workers will have an easier time collecting trash.
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