New York City Mayor Eric Adams wheeled a tall black trash bin to a designated spot, tossed a garbage bag in it, and made a declaration: “Welcome to our trash revolution.”
The orchestrated display wasn’t centered on just any trash bin. It was New York City’s “first-ever official” trash bin, and the demonstration also served to announce a newly proposed requirement for buildings with one to nine residential units and other units to put their trash in bins by November 2024.
“Today, we are tossing even more black bags into the dustbin of history and taking the next step forward in our ‘Trash Revolution,’” Adams said in a statement. “The first-ever, official NYC Bin is high-quality, affordable, and will build on our efforts containerizing more than 70 percent of the city’s trash to protect our most valuable and limited resource — our public space.”
The city stores much of its trash not in bins but in bags placed in an assortment of places: the sidewalk, between buildings, and stairwell landings. The city’s gigantic amount of waste produced is the main reason why it has an estimated rat population of as many as 3 million.
“We all have one unified dislike, and those are those pesky New York City rats,” Adams said. “They’re getting more and more bold. They no longer run from you. They just hang out and just do what they want. We want to make sure we change that in a real way.”
The new bins are designed to be cheaper than some bins property owners use for their trash, which NYC Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said can cost over $100 retail.
“Well, we’ve got great news: At the same time that we’re moving to require containerization of trash for all buildings with one to nine residential units, we’re unveiling the official ‘NYC Bin’ — beautiful, durable, and less than $50 for the most common size,” Tisch said.
They’re listed at $45.88 for 35 gallons and $53.01 for 45 gallons.
“The new official NYC Bin is the cheapest bin of its quality available; similarly durable bins with wheels and a secure, latching lid are sold in retail stores for almost three times the price,” a statement from the mayor’s office said. “These savings were achieved through an innovative contracting mechanism in which one vendor is held to a low price in exchange for exclusivity.”
The bins will be mandatory in June 2026 for buildings that already use bins with latching lids and are 55 gallons or less.
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“This is just to add with our revolution already that the commission has accomplished,” Adams said, later praising Tisch as a “visionary.”
The city produces 14 billion pounds of trash per year, one of the largest amounts of trash produced on Earth.