NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Acting Commissioner Javier Lojan announced that Brooklyn Community District 2 will be the second neighborhood in the city to have all its trash fully containerized in the Adams administration’s revolutionary Empire Bins, building on the incredible success of the containerization of all trash in West Harlem.
DSNY will install stationary, on-street containers — known as Empire Bins — at schools in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill this fall and extend the popular program to all schools and high-density residential buildings in the community district next year.
The milestone announcement comes as rats continue to flee New York City: in each of the nine months since low-density residential containerization requirements went into effect last year, rat sightings reported to 311 have declined when compared to the same month the previous year.
“Our ‘Trash Revolution’ is delivering cleaner streets, a better quality of life, and nine straight months of fewer rat sightings. The rats are losing — and Brooklyn is next,” said Mayor Adams.
“As the rats crash out, we are ramping up. Today, we are proud to launch the next phase of the ‘Trash Revolution’: the Battle of Brooklyn. Following the success of Community Board 9 in West Harlem, our administration is bringing Empire Bins to Fort Greene and Clinton Hill this fall and expanding citywide in 2026. Every day, we are making our city cleaner, safer, and a better place to raise a family, unless you’re a rat.”
“Bin by bin, we are proving the naysayers wrong and showing the world that New York City can have clean streets and sidewalks, just like cities around the world have done for decades,” said DSNY Acting Commissioner Lojan.
“I have seen a lot of innovation in my 26 years with the Sanitation Department, but containerizing trash using on-street containers is by far the most significant. I am thrilled to be bringing this pilot to a second borough, and I look forward to ongoing evaluation and continued expansion.”
The expansion announced covers schools and higher-density buildings in Brooklyn Community Board 2. DSNY will assign Empire Bins to schools and all buildings with more than 30 units, and Empire Bins will be accessible to property managers with a key card.
Buildings with 10 to 30 units will be given an option — after extensive one-to-one outreach — to either have an Empire Bin assigned to them or use smaller “wheelie bins” as all properties with one to nine units are already required to do citywide.
The initial West Harlem pilot utilized roughly 1,100 Empire Bins to store trash from schools and high- and some mid-density residential buildings.
The Empire Bins are serviced by North America’s first automated side-loading truck, which DSNY was able to have built years ahead of schedule by developers from Torino, Italy, and Hicksville and Brooklyn, New York.
These trucks — which only take two sanitation workers to operate — have been running on the streets of West Harlem since April.
The announcement is another step forward in Mayor Adams’ Trash Revolution — the citywide effort to move trash from black bags on the sidewalk to rat-resistant, closed containers.
