{"id":133,"date":"2026-07-06T04:38:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=133"},"modified":"2026-07-06T04:38:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:38:39","slug":"sanitation-will-let-smaller-buildings-share-curbside-containers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=133","title":{"rendered":"Sanitation Will Let Smaller Buildings Share Curbside Containers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sharing is caring. <\/p>\n

The city will allow smaller buildings to share curbside trash containers rather than rely on wheelie bins clogging up the sidewalk, marking a small but promising policy change that brings the Big Apple\u2019s waste reforms closer to best practices common in Europe and Latin America.<\/p>\n

Read more Monday\u2019s Headlines Enjoyed the Fireworks<\/a><\/p>\n

The Department of Sanitation previously restricted its \u201cEmpire Bins\u201d to one building at a time, and only to those with 10 or more units when it rolled out its so-called Trash Revolution in last year \u2014 but now smaller housing stock in parts of Brooklyn will be able to get the roadway bins, and share them with other buildings, as part of the next phase. <\/p>\n

The tweaks are still a far cry from the way other cities with curbside containerization have implemented their systems from Barcelona to Buenos Aires, according to experts. Municipalities either give all building residents access to the containers, or leave them open to the general public, said Clare Miflin the executive director of the Center for Zero Waste Design.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely moving in the right direction. It\u2019s thinking about curb efficiency, it\u2019s trying to reduce the amount of bins on sidewalks, it just doesn\u2019t go far enough,\u201d Miflin told Streetsblog. <\/p>\n

The change for smaller buildings is also only a pilot for now, but it promises to bring the benefits of curbside garbage collection to more types of residences, said a Brooklyn lawmaker who lobbied DSNY for the policy in his district.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmaller brownstones and six-unit apartment buildings should also enjoy the benefits of full garbage containerization,\u201d Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn Heights) told Streetsblog. \u201cOur sidewalks are often too congested and moving our garbage entirely off of the sidewalk and into these Empire Bins in the street is a great way to expand pedestrian space and get garbage off our doorsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city previously only required buildings with 31 or more units to deploy the new containers in the roadway when New York\u2019s Strongest launched its \u201cTrash Revolution\u201d in West Harlem last year. Those with nine or fewer apartments have had to use wheelie bins on the sidewalk, while buildings with 10-30 units could choose either. It was part of the Adams administration\u2019s historic effort to remove the Big Apple\u2019s notorious mountains of rubbish, an initiative Mayor Mamdani said he would fully fund for a citywide expansion by mid-2032.<\/p>\n

For the next phase of the city\u2019s rollout, building owners in Brooklyn\u2019s Community District 2 can apply to share Empire Bins, according to Sanitation officials. That includes Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Fulton Ferry Vinegar Hill, Boerum Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Clinton Hill and Fort Greene. Smaller buildings that have at least a combined 15 units can apply for shared Empire Bins.<\/p>\n

Miflin and other waste reformers have long urged the city to allow more buildings to take part in the curbside option, which makes better use of the space than car storage while avoiding a \u201cBerlin Wall\u201d of garbage cans on the city\u2019s already scarce sidewalk space. Wheelie bins are also harder for Sanitation workers to collect, because parked cars still get in the way.<\/p>\n

DSNY must also allow recyclables and organics to go in street containers to fully free up the sidewalk, and take on the cost of maintaining the bins rather than putting it on building managers, otherwise the uptake by buildings will likely be limited, Miflin said.<\/p>\n

Read more Friday\u2019s Headlines: Have a Smashing Fourth Edition<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of people that are going to do that I think is pretty slim if it\u2019s just the trash, because you still have to maintain your recycling and organics bin,\u201d Miflin said. <\/p>\n

Buildings vying for shared containers will have to organize themselves and pick a point person or management company that signs an agreement with the city to be responsible for the containers. That person or group would also be responsible, which start at $100 and rise to $300 per violation, like failing to clean the bins and the area immediately around them. <\/p>\n

The city is allowed to charge landlords up to $55 per year per apartment unit for the bins, and Miflin urged officials to channel those fees toward maintaining the bins, rather than dumping the responsibility on individual building owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther cities that do shared containers on streets, the city maintains them,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not anywhere else in the world done like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not do a pilot and see what it takes to maintain around them. Maybe it wouldn\u2019t be that much for the Department of Sanitation,\u201d Miflin added.<\/p>\n

The city began rolling out the new bins at schools in the Brooklyn neighborhoods last fall, and plans to cover households across the district by mid-October 2027, according to a . <\/p>\n

DSNY personnel started canvassing buildings to apply for the curbside option this week, according to agency officials, and buildings must register for the bins by the end of July.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents and building managers in West Harlem have found Empire Bins to be clean and convenient, allowing building supers to take trash out at any hour, any day, while freeing up space\u202fonce occupied by trash\u202finside the building and on the sidewalk,\u201d said DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson in a press release. \u201cWe are thrilled to be bringing Empire Bins and cleaner streets to Brooklyn, and we expect them to be just as popular here and across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building owners and staff interested in applying for shared Empire Bins should contact DSNY directly at customerservice@dsny.nyc.gov.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Thursday\u2019s Headlines Shake and Bake<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big Apple is getting closer to the European way of trash containerization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-department-of-sanitation"],"yoast_head":"\nSanitation Will Let Smaller Buildings Share Curbside Containers - Urban Atlas Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=133\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sanitation Will Let Smaller Buildings Share Curbside Containers - Urban Atlas Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Big Apple is getting closer to the European way of trash containerization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=133\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Urban Atlas Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-06T04:38:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanatlasmedia.com\\\/?p=133#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanatlasmedia.com\\\/?p=133\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanatlasmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/036f6ba8a22b3d538020592ea1365862\"},\"headline\":\"Sanitation Will Let Smaller Buildings Share Curbside Containers\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T04:38:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanatlasmedia.com\\\/?p=133\"},\"wordCount\":944,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Department of Sanitation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanatlasmedia.com\\\/?p=133#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanatlasmedia.com\\\/?p=133\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanatlasmedia.com\\\/?p=133\",\"name\":\"Sanitation Will Let Smaller Buildings Share Curbside Containers - 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