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.
The idea that New York City is finally putting its trash in cans, long after most urban civilizations have done so, has led to a fair amount of ridicule. But it is a significant change in a city where piles of trash bags have clogged sidewalks for decades.
The shift in trash collection is viewed as one of the major achievements of Mayor Eric Adams’s first term. Most of his rivals in the mayor’s race this year say it is one of the few policies of his they would keep.
Mr. Adams said in a statement that “cynics rolled their eyes” when he introduced the idea, but that the city had “seen six straight months of fewer rat sightings with cleaner sidewalks and clearer corners.”
The plan was championed by Jessica Tisch, the former sanitation commissioner under Mr. Adams who now serves as the police commissioner. Javier Lojan, the acting sanitation commissioner, said the new pilot program was a “giant leap forward for our city.” He said he had seen too many sanitation workers get hurt from throwing bags or contracting diseases linked to bacteria.
Shaun Abreu, the City Council member who represents West Harlem, has been criticized by some of his constituents for being a major booster of the plan.
“When the bins first came, there were some folks who were definitely not too thrilled,” he said. “The benefits far outweigh the negatives to the point where I’m not getting many complaints any more.”
Each large residential building with 31 units or more gets its own Empire Bin. Building staff members have key cards to open the bins, which are emptied three times per week. Buildings with fewer than 10 units must use smaller “wheelie bins.” Buildings with 10 to 30 units can choose between the two options. Recycling, which attracts fewer rats, still goes on the curb in clear bags.
One of the greatest challenges so far is double-parked cars, city officials said. They sometimes block the bins so that a side-loading truck cannot grab them.
Expanding the program citywide is expected to be complicated and expensive. City officials said it could require removing more than 50,000 parking spots. Buying enough bins and trucks could easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade, a commitment that will fall to the winner of the mayoral election in November.
Mr. Adams, who has record-low approval ratings, is running as an independent in November, and may be hard pressed to win a second term. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is leading in the polls, has said that he agrees with putting trash into containers.
Others would go further. Brad Lander, the city comptroller who is running for mayor, wants to expand the program and use more on-street containers. Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker who is second in the polls, said the program should do more.
“The current administration missed an opportunity to require residents to put recycling in containers,” he said.
The rollout of trash containerization in the city has faced a fair amount of backlash from residents who say the bins are unsightly, and from motorists who do not want to give up parking spots. Pedestrians have complained about the omnipresence of wheelie bins.
But Mr. Martin, the sanitation veteran, was all in favor. He said rat sightings were down and that the new bins made his job less messy.
“It’s a different mind-set and different muscles being used,” he said. “It’s a lot more of this,” he added, pointing to his head.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons is the City Hall bureau chief for The Times, covering Mayor Eric Adams and his administration.
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