NEW YORK (AP) — For half a century, New York City residents have taken out their trash by flinging plastic bags stuffed with stinking garbage straight onto the sidewalk.

When the bags inevitably leak or break open, they spill litter into the street, providing smorgasbords for rats. In the winter, the trash mounds get buried in snow and remain frozen in place for days, sometimes weeks, reinforcing the city’s reputation as filthy.

Now, New Yorkers are slowly adjusting to a radically new routine, at least for America’s biggest city: Putting their trash in bins. With lids.

Earlier this month, covered bins became a requirement for all residential buildings with fewer than 10 living units. That’s the majority of residential properties. All city businesses had to start using bins earlier this year.

“I know this must sound absurd to anyone listening to this who lives pretty much in any other city in the world,” said Jessica Tisch, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, who oversaw the new measures before becoming the city’s new police commissioner this week. “But it is revolutionary by New York City’s standards because, for 50 years, we have placed all our trash directly on the curbs.”

Residents who’ve already experienced trash containerization elsewhere agree it’s long overdue for New York City to catch up.

“You see plastic bags open with the food just rotting and stinking and then it leaking out over the sidewalk and into the road,” said John Midgley, who owns a brownstone in Brooklyn and has lived in London, Paris and Amsterdam. “Just the stink of it builds up, you know, week after week after week.”

New York City’s homes, businesses and institutions put about 44 million pounds (20 million kilograms) of waste out on the curb every day, about 24 million pounds (11 million kilograms) of which is collected by the city’s sanitation department. Much of the rest is handled by private garbage carters.

In the early 20th century, New York City required trash to be placed in metal cans. But in the era before widespread plastic bag use, refuse was thrown directly into the bins, making them filthy and grimy.

Then in 1968, the city’s sanitation workers went on strike. For more than a week, trash cans overflowed. Garbage mounds piled high on sidewalks and spilled into the streets like some dystopian nightmare.

Plastic bag makers donated thousands of bags to help clean up the mess, and New Yorkers never looked back, said Steven Cohen, a Columbia University dean specializing in public affairs.

“It had to do with convenience,” he said. “After the strike, the sanitation workers preferred the modern advance of lighter and seemingly cleaner sealed plastic bags.”

Plastic kept more odors in, compared to the old metal bins. A worker could grab the neck of a bag and easily fling it into a truck.

But Democratic Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has deemed trash bag mounds Public Enemy No. 1 in his well-documented war against the city’s notorious rats.

Rats have little problem getting into a plastic bag. Durable bins with closing, locking lids should, in theory, do a better job of keeping them out.

The bin requirement, which took effect Nov. 12, comes with its own challenges. Among them: Finding a place for large, wheeled bins in neighborhoods where most buildings don’t have yards, alleys or garages. Landlords and homeowners also have to collect the empty bins and bring them back from the curb in the morning — something you didn’t have to do with plastic bags.

Caitlin Leffel, who lives in Manhattan, said residents of her building had to hire someone “at surprisingly high cost” to bring out the bins the night before and bring them back in three times a week.

“I know there are problems with the way this city has collected trash for years,” she said. “But the way this program has been rolled out, it has not taken into account many of the nuances of living in New York City.”

Building superintendents are also grumbling about the added work of bringing bins back from the curb.

“It’s completely rearranged our lives,” says Dominick Romeo, founder of NYC Building Supers, a group of building managers that recently rallied in front of City Hall against the new requirements. “Folks are running around like crazy.”

Eventually, the largest residential buildings — those with more than 31 units — will have their own designated container on the street. New trash trucks built with automated, side-loading arms — another innovation that is already common in many other countries — will then clear them out.

The upgrades should make pickups easier and cleaner, even if it might take longer for trash collectors to make the rounds, says Harry Nespoli, president of the union representing some 7,000 city sanitation workers.

For now, he says, workers are still tossing trash into their trucks manually, which has its own downsides.

“Some places, they’re not even using bags. They’re just putting their trash into the bins,” Nespoli said. “It’s going to take time to get everyone to do it the right way, but at the end of the day, it’s our job to pick it up.”

Tisch believes New Yorkers will eventually come around to the new reality.

City officials, for now, are issuing written warnings for non-compliance. Not everyone knows about the new rules yet. But come Jan. 2, fines ranging from $50 to $200 will kick in.

“No one wants to live on a dirty block,” Tisch said. “No one wants to walk past a heaping mound of trash and trash juice when they are leaving to go to work or they are walking their kids home from school.”

New York City Rethinks Trash: The Shift from Curbside Chaos to Bin Strategy

NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, the sidewalks of New York City have endured the unsightly spectacle of mounds of plastic bags filled with refuse, an urban landscape marred by litter, odor, and an ever-thriving rat population. Streets that should gleam with the vibrancy of one of the world’s greatest cities are instead often overshadowed by the stench of rotting garbage, especially in winter, when trash becomes ensnared in snow, steadfast and frozen for weeks.

This week, however, a significant transformation began as New Yorkers are slowly, but surely, adopting a new way of handling their waste: placing it in bins with lids. This small shift in habit marks a monumental change for America’s largest metropolis, long known for its idiosyncratic approach to waste disposal.

The Radical New Routine

As of November 12, 2024, all residential buildings with fewer than 10 units are required to utilize covered trash bins. Earlier this year, similar mandates were already in place for city businesses. Jessica Tisch, the city’s former sanitation commissioner who instigated these changes, now serves as the new police commissioner. “I know this must sound absurd to anyone listening to this who lives pretty much in any other city in the world,” she remarked. “But it is revolutionary by New York City’s standards because, for 50 years, we have placed all our trash directly on the curbs.”

As the city embraces this change, the sentiments among residents are mixed, yet many agree that this move is long overdue. “You see plastic bags open with the food just rotting and stinking and then it leaking out over the sidewalk and into the road,” shared John Midgley, a Brooklyn brownstone owner with experiences of living in cleaner cities. “Just the stink of it builds up, you know, week after week after week.”

The Weight of Waste

Each day, New York homes, businesses, and institutions generate approximately 44 million pounds of waste. Of this staggering amount, around 24 million pounds is collected by the sanitation department, while the remainder is managed by private haulers. This reality has made the task of taming the city’s trash feel overwhelming.

Historically, this issue was not always a norm. In the early 1900s, New York enforced a rule requiring refuse to be thrown into metal cans. But changes arrived after a drastic sanitation workers’ strike in 1968, which left the city buried in heaps of uncollected trash. “Plastic bag makers donated thousands of bags to help clean up the mess, and New Yorkers never looked back,” noted Steven Cohen, a Columbia University dean. The convenience that came with plastic bags was simply too appealing compared to the laborious task of utilizing metal bins that would leave everything filthy. “It had to do with convenience,” he explained.

The Battle Against Rats

Now, city officials, backed by Mayor Eric Adams, are confronting the rat population head-on, as discarded plastic bags have become a welcome feast for these unwelcome visitors. The hard plastic bins—complete with closing and locking lids—should, in theory, make it harder for rats to rummage through trash. However, the transition comes with its own hurdles. Urban landscapes often lack adequate space for bins, and the new requirement places added burdens on landlords who must manage the logistics of emptying and returning the bins each day.

Caitlin Leffel, a Manhattan resident, shared her frustrations on the steep learning curve of this new system, noting costs for hiring someone to manage their bins are surprisingly high. “I know there are problems with the way this city has collected trash for years,” she said. “But the way this program has been rolled out has not taken into account many of the nuances of living in New York City.”

Rearranging Lives

As this new regimen settles in, building managers are expressing their discontent. Dominick Romeo, founder of NYC Building Supers, described the frantic shifts: “It’s completely rearranged our lives. Folks are running around like crazy.” While there is hope that future changes will simplify the process—allowing larger buildings to have their own designated bins with automatic collection systems—many are left dealing with the chaos of the current model.

Despite being less than a week into the rollout, the city is already preparing to enforce compliance. A mix of warnings and potential fines between $50 and $200 will commence on January 2, 2025, to encourage residents to adapt to the new standards. “No one wants to live on a dirty block,” Tisch emphasized. Unfortunately, the transition comes at a time when the reality of life in the city often clashes with ambitious policies.

Time Will Tell

The journey towards cleaner streets is far from over. While municipal workers continue tossing trash into their trucks manually, the hope is that NYC will find a rhythm to this new approach. “It’s going to take time to get everyone to do it the right way, but at the end of the day, it’s our job to pick it up,” said Harry Nespoli, president of the sanitation workers’ union.

As New Yorkers move forward, the hope lingers that this shift from plastic bags to sealed bins can help tame the city’s notorious litter challenges. After all, no one wants their daily journey through the city shadowed by the unsightly remnants of yesterday’s refuse. Whether they can fully embrace this new strategy remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the city is ready for a change.

Ultimately, this is more than just a change in how residents toss their trash; it’s a reflection of how a city can evolve and confront its challenges, paving the way for a healthier urban environment for future generations.