{"id":201057,"date":"2026-04-17T19:18:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:18:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:18:37","slug":"put-a-lid-on-it-mamdani-announces-full-trash-containerization-plans-for-queens-and-nyc-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201057\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Put a lid on it!\u2019 Mamdani announces full trash containerization plans for Queens and NYC \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson announced earlier today that six new community districts, including Queens Community District 2, will have 100% of its trash containerized by the end of 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a news release from City Hall, eight of the city\u2019s 59 districts will have zero trash bags on the streets next fall, and the administration is committing to full citywide trash containerization by the end of 2031.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, no New Yorker should have their sidewalks covered in garbage,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cBy finishing the job on containerization, we will ensure New York City\u2019s streets remain the envy of the world. We have the plan, we\u2019re investing the money and we\u2019re delivering on the promise of clean, healthy streets for every neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The news release noted that businesses and low-density residential buildings, including single-family homes, are already required to put their trash into smaller \u201cwheelie bins.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, today\u2019s announcement covers trash from higher-density residential buildings, whose building managers will put their trash into stationary on-street containers known as Empire Bins.<\/p>\n

These Empire Bins will be assigned to individual buildings, the news release said, and accessible only to building managers.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

They will be serviced by North America\u2019s first automated side-loading trucks.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNeighborhood by neighborhood, we are ending the decades-long era of trash bags on the streets of New York City,\u201d Anderson added. \u201cOthers have talked a lot about containerizing the city\u2019s trash, but we are actually getting it done, delivering cleaner streets and sidewalks \u2014 and fewer rats \u2014 to every corner of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medium- and high-density residential buildings in the following districts will receive Empire Bins by the end of 2027:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Queens Community District 2\u202f(Sunnyside<\/a>, Hunters Point<\/a>, Woodside<\/a>)\u00a0
\nBrooklyn Community District 8\u202f(Prospect Heights, Crown Heights,\u202fWeeksville)\u00a0
\nBronx Community District 2\u202f(Hunts Point, Longwood)\u00a0
\nBronx Community District 5\u202f(University Heights, Mount Hope, Morris Heights, Fordham Heights)\u00a0
\nManhattan Community District 2\u202f(West Village, SoHo, Little Italy, Greenwich Village, Nolita)\u00a0
\nStaten Island Community District 1\u202f(North Shore)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the course of the next year, the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY<\/a>) will assign Empire Bins to all buildings in these districts with more than 30 units.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buildings with 10 to 30 units will be given an option \u2014 which the news release said would be after extensive one-to-one outreach \u2014 to either have an Empire Bin assigned to them or use smaller \u201cwheelie bins\u201d as all properties with one to nine units are already required to do citywide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the exact number of Empire Bins used will depend upon how many medium-density buildings choose to use Empire Bins vs wheelie bins, the DSNY is expecting that this expansion will use more than 6,500 Empire Bins for more than 3,500 medium- and high-density buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cContainerization is a long overdue step in bringing our city\u2019s trash collection into the modern era, putting an end to the piles of garbage that have become far too common across our city,\u201d said Deputy Mayor for Operations Julia Kerson. \u201cWe will be hard at work rolling out this program throughout the five boroughs, keeping our public realm clean, safe and enjoyable for all New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Empire Bins that will be introduced to Queens and the rest of NYC by 2031. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Council Member Crystal Hudson, who represents District 35 in Brooklyn, has been championing legislation similar to the trash containerization program announced today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She introduced the Rat Act (Int. 1123<\/a>) in 2024, which was passed by City Council last year, to expand containerization citywide and help get \u201cunsightly\u201d heaps of trash bags off the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thrilled for Mayor Mamdani and DSNY Commissioner Anderson\u2019s announcement today to expand containerization to community board districts in every borough, including Community Board 8 in my district,\u201d Hudson said. \u201cIt is encouraging to see this work begin to scale across the city. Containerization is a critical tool in addressing our rat crisis and improving street cleanliness. I look forward to continuing to work with the mayor and commissioner to build on this momentum and ensure this effort is fully realized citywide in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s trash containerization plan, the news release said, mirrors the successful operation in the first containerized district, Manhattan Community District 9.<\/p>\n

Trash in the district, which includes West Harlem, has been fully containerized since last June, utilizing roughly 1,100 Empire Bins to store trash from schools and some mid- and high-density residential buildings.<\/p>\n

The Empire Bins are serviced by automated side-loading trucks, which the news release noted the DSNY built years ahead of schedule by developers from Italy, Hicksville and Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

The news release said the program has resulted in noticeably cleaner streets.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

While the initial West Harlem pilot has performed well for the last 10 months, the news release continued \u2014 including during this year\u2019s cold, snowy winter \u2014 the Eric Adams Administration only intended it to be a pilot program expanding to just one additional district.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The news release noted that no funding, plans or timeline were put in place to extend the service across the city.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

However, today\u2019s commitment lays out a path to full citywide containerization of trash in just five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson announced earlier today that six new community districts, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[310,18481,79762,22925,9,24,63,122,124,123,46328],"class_list":{"0":"post-201057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-daily-newsletter","9":"tag-dsny","10":"tag-empire-bins","11":"tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-trash-containerization"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}