Liam Quigley

REPORTER

NYC’s “Trash Revolution”

REPORTING ON
Trash Revolution
A sanitation truck with its hopper raised beside a pile of black trash bags on a Bronx street, as a man walks past.
The city is moving millions of pounds of daily trash from sidewalk bags into closed containers for the first time.

New York City is trying to move millions of pounds of daily trash — long piled in sidewalk bags — into closed containers for the first time. The years-long campaign has brought new mandates, delayed deliveries, and unforeseen obstacles for landlords, supers, and the city alike.

STORIES IN THIS SERIES

  • Mamdani to swap parking spots for more than 6,500 curbside Empire Bins across NYC

    Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that the city will roll out the Spanish-made Empire Bins for the first time in the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens, and expand their use in Manhattan and Brooklyn, by the end of 2027.

  • NYC’s ‘trash revolution’ gets new general as Mamdani names his sanitation chief

    Mayor Mamdani has named a new sanitation commissioner to lead the city’s ongoing containerization push.

  • NYC wrestles with delays in delivering official trash bins

    Thousands of New Yorkers are still waiting for their mandated city bins and risk fines as early as June while the sanitation department works to clear a supply chain backlog.

  • Mayor Mamdani resumes fines for failure to compost in NYC

    Sanitation inspectors quietly began issuing tickets on Jan. 1, resuming enforcement that Mayor Adams paused last year only weeks after it took effect.

  • Report criticizes NYC trash plan, argues recycling should also go in containers

    A new analysis finds the city’s containerization plan leaves recycling to pile up on sidewalks even as regular trash moves into bins.

  • NYC’s push to get trash in bins may take 7 years due to parking concerns, report says

    The city’s plan to move large on-street bins into parking spaces citywide could take until 2032 — largely due to resistance over removing street parking, a new report found.

  • NYC supers say new trash rules are ruining their lives

    Building superintendents say the new bin mandates have created impossible workloads and gathered outside City Hall to demand the city ease up.

  • How to compost in NYC

    Liam Quigley joins the Brian Lehrer Show to explain how curbside composting works, what goes in the brown bin, and what happens to it after collection.

    HOW TO COMPOST IN NYC — BRIAN LEHRER
    BRIAN LEHRER · MARCH 31 2025
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  • Ban on trash bag mountains goes into effect for vast majority of NYC buildings

    Starting Tuesday, residential buildings with nine or fewer units must set out trash in sealed bins — the first mass enforcement of the container mandate.

  • How to sort your trash in NYC

    A guide to the city’s new containerization rules on the Brian Lehrer Show: which bins are required, who has to use them, and when.

    HOW TO SORT YOUR TRASH IN NYC — BRIAN LEHRER
    BRIAN LEHRER · AUGUST 26 2024
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  • Too dense for dumpsters: This NYC block reveals hurdles in ‘trash revolution’

    One block between First and Second avenues shows how extreme density can make the city’s container-based trash plan physically impossible to execute.

  • NYC mandates trash bins for most homes to keep rats, garbage piles off sidewalks

    The city is requiring most homeowners and small landlords to buy bins with secure lids — a central plank of the effort to clean sidewalks and cut the rat population.