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Trash containers take over Brooklyn parking spaces as NYC gets garbage bags off sidewalks
By
Liam Quigley
Published Oct 29, 2026 at 3:55 p.m. ET
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Liam Quigley / Gothamist
By
Liam Quigley
Published Oct 29, 2026 at 3:55 p.m. ET
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Trash bag piles will soon be eradicated from a swath of Brooklyn as the city sanitation department installs hundreds of trash containers in parking spaces in some of the borough’s densest areas.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson on Thursday announced that crews began installing more than 700 “Empire Bins” on streets across Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill, Dumbo, Clinton Hill and the Navy Yard. The bins will be placed in front of buildings with more than 30 units, and officials said the rollout would be completed by the end of the fall.
Mamdani and Anderson installed the first of the bins during a news conference in Brooklyn Heights. The bins will be serviced by one of the city’s newly purchased garbage trucks, which lift and empty the trash containers.
“Every New Yorker deserves clean streets and sidewalks,” Mamdani said. “For too long, New Yorkers have had to walk past mountains of trash bags piled high on the curb that offer feasts for rats and stink up our streets. We’re changing that.”
The bins could replace around 768 of the area’s 23,795 on-street parking spaces, according to an analysis published by the sanitation department. More than 31% of households in the area where the bins are coming own at least one vehicle, according to city data.
The city already requires all buildings with nine or fewer units to use a smaller official NYC Bin to wheel out their trash to the curb. Buildings with 10 to 30 units can opt into the Empire Bin program.
By the end of this year’s rollout, trash bag piles will no longer be permitted across this swath of Brooklyn, which is home to 138,000 people. Recycling bags are still allowed to be put out on the curb.
Rat sightings in Harlem dropped after the bins were installed through a pilot program in the neighborhood, and officials say they'll drop across the five boroughs if the city's waste is fully containerized.
Previous Mayor Eric Adams introduced the bins to Brooklyn last September by ordering them to be installed outside school buildings. The new rollout marks the first time the street bins will be used for residential buildings in the borough, as well as the first time the containers have been deployed in such a dense area of the city.
“I cannot recall a time when New Yorkers have not had to dodge mountains of trash bags and rats on their own sidewalks — but now, I can proudly say that those days are numbered,” said City Councilmember Crystal Hudson, who pushed legislation that mandated the sanitation department continue the rollout after Adams’ departure.
Some neighborhoods could see 10% of their available parking spots swallowed up by the trash bins.
The city plans to continue the rollout next year by installing the bins in Hunts Point and University Heights in the Bronx. Empire Bins are also slated next year for Sunnyside in Queens, Manhattan's West Village, Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, and Staten Island's North Shore.
Clarence Gilliam, who was parking his car near the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Thursday, said he has no plans to give up driving even if the bins make it harder for him to find a parking spot.
“If it gets rid of the rats, it's a good thing, but make it easier for people to park," he said.
Tagged
brooklyn
new york city
sanitation
Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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