OK. I might have come in a little hot with that headline.
But there’s no downplaying the mess that this NYC Bin program has been.
And the mess that I suspect it will continue be going forward.
I was finally able to purchase my bins last week. It took me at least four visits to various Home Depot locations here on Staten Island in order to get it done.
That’s just too much to ask of people. If the city is going to demand that we buy a certain product (a very spotty ask to begin with, in my opinion), the city has to make sure that the product is readily available.
Not only would that make it easier on residents, but it also eases compliance.
A couple of weeks ago, some folks at the Home Depot on Targee Street in Concord told me that they had no bins in stock and that there had been some delay with deliveries from the bin manufacturer.
The company, Otto Environmental Systems, is based in Charlotte, N.C.
Otto is the only company allowed to make the bins. Which is the first idiotic blunder that the city, under then-Mayor Eric Adams, made in rolling this whole stupid program out.
Does it really matter who makes the bins as long as we have a bin to put our trash in?
Anyway, the good folks at Home Depot told me that there was no telling when a shipment of the coveted bins would come in.
What was I supposed to do? Camp out in the parking lot and wait for the delivery truck?
At the Home Depot on Forest Avenue in Mariners Harbor, a worker told me that I should order a bin online and then come pick it up.
What a great idea!
But when I (repeatedly) went on the Home Depot website, it wouldn’t allow me to click on a bin and order it.
I also had trouble logging onto the Otto company website in an attempt to order directly from them. I still have not gotten a return call after leaving a message on their helpline.
On a subsequent visit to the Home Depot on Targee, a worker told me that I’d just missed out on getting a bin. A shipment had come in that morning, but all the bins were already gone.
He suggested that I get to the store bright and early, like 8 a.m.
I told him that I was going to buy five bins and sell what I didn’t need on the black market.
Well, I was in the area the other day so I decided to swing by Targee Street again. And, lo and behold, there were plenty of bins in stock.
It felt like seeing all the presents under the tree on Christmas morning. That’s how desperate this whole NYC Bin runaround has made me.
I grabbed two of the 35-gallon models. The larger models just seemed too big.
Oh, and when (if) you get your bin, make sure the wheels and the bin handle are both inside. Along with a little plastic bag of fastening clips.
You’ll have to install that hardware yourself. And it took me more than a minute to figure out how to do it. Instructions were not included.
And now I need to get some stickers so I can put my address on the bins in order to deter thieves.
I’m considering chaining the bins to my porch railing when they’re not at the curb for pickup.
The NYC Bin mess ain’t over yet!