How much do they cost? When do you have to start using them? And what should you do with obsolete bins?
By Katie Honan, and Melanie Marich
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- The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Mayor Eric Adams announced outside Gracie Mansion a plan to require small residential buildings to use new trash bins, July 8, 2024. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Offi
Mayor Eric Adams on Monday rolled out the city’s new official trash can, NYC Bin, which will be required for all residential buildings with between one and nine units by June 2026.
Before that, effective Nov. 12, those properties can use any bin that’s 55 gallons or less with a secure lid. Those who don’t will face escalating fines, starting at $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second and $200 for every offense after that.
The official NYC Bins – which cost $53.01 exactly for the largest, 45-gallon size, shipping included – went on sale this week in anticipation of the new rules. The bins come with a 10-year warranty, and recycling and compost bins are also on sale, but not required. The discount comes from bulk ordering, officials said, and will only be available to New York City residents.
The mayor and sanitation commissioner Jessica Tisch rolled the garbage bins out in front of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, as they touted their “trash revolution.”
“No one is concerned more about the trash and the garbage bags… than working-class people, they see it in their communities, they see it in their neighborhoods,” Adams said.
The new directive will containerize 70% of the city’s trash, officials said, and deter rats from dining on discarded food.
The bins, which are specially-designed to be picked up by trucks retrofitted with mechanical tippers, will also reduce line-of-duty injuries, Tisch said.
“Fully 50 percent of our line-of-duty injuries, our injuries that our sanitation workers sustain on the job, are strains and sprains from lifting,” she said.
Homeowners and building managers who will one day be required to buy the bins were not as impressed.
Angela Tiseo, who owns a home in Astoria, was upset at the cost of the new bins – even though similar bins are more expensive in stores – and scoffed at the idea of trash cans as a “revolutionary vision.”
“When I was growing up, we were always required to put the garbage in metal garbage bins,” she said. “Nothing revolutionary here, it’s just old-school thinking.”
Leslie Tapia in Jamaica was doubtful the bins could really help with the rats.
“You cannot control other people’s actions and that’s the problem. Rats by nature are scavengers and even though they will have these new ‘secure bins’ that doesn’t stop them from being in the sewers, subways, open public trash cans that are not secure and go days without being picked up, like in Rufus King Park,” she said.
The North Carolina-based company awarded the contract to sell the bins told THE CITY in April it was “humbled and honored” to be doing so – with a goal of selling almost 3.4 million, with 1 million delivered by Nov. 1, 2024, according to a draft agreement.
If you need to get rid of an old bin you won’t use anymore, a sanitation department spokesperson said to leave it out upside down and labeled as trash for garbage pickup.
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