It is one of those ‘only in New York’ things: in almost every street, at any hour of the day, trash bags stay on the sidewalks waiting to be picked up, many of them attracting rats.  

“New Yorkers are tired of this,” councilman Erik Bottcher said.

What You Need To Know

  • Garbage bags are left on sidewalks for pickup

  • The practice started in the 1960s after two sanitation strikes, complaints about noise and ample supply of plastic bags

  • Manhattan councilman Erik Bottcher wants containers to replace the bags

  • Bags on sidewalks attract rats and make the city dirtier

It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the practice of leaving garbage bags on the sidewalks to be picked up was instituted in the city.

Sanitation strikes, coupled with complaints about the noise of the metal bins and the ample supply of plastic bags, changed our street landscape to the way it is still today.

“Because there has been no plan to change it,” Clare Mifflin said, founder of the Center for Zero Waste Design.

But Bottcher is trying to challenge the status quo, saying “New York really needs to step up and catch up with the rest of the world.”

One of his ideas is making the use of containers widespread. A small pilot program is currently underway in Times Square with these CITBINS, but with mixed results.

Miflin, who’s studied different options to change the way New York deals with waste, believes the city should be piloting different programs while looking at best practices of other major cities, including adding more pickup days for residential garbage beyond the current three and using large-wheeled containers.

“Add hoists to the back of the existing trucks. I’ve even called the manufacturer, $10 thousand a hoist. They can add something that could pick up wheeled bins,” Miflin said.

Sanitation commissioner Jessica Tisch says that when she arrived at the department in April, she was surprised the city hadn’t really studied these ideas before.

“My preference would be for New Yorkers not to see the black bags. And I think containerization is something that is long overdue. It’s hard,” Tisch said.

Composting organic waste could also be part of the solution.

Mayor Adams announced on Monday a borough-wide effort in Queens starting in October, but the program is mostly focused on yard waste and won’t be permanent for now.

Sandy Nurse, who chairs the Sanitation Committee at the City Council, would like composting to be mandatory.

“If New Yorkers want their trash bags off of their streets at night, they have to demand that from our city and our city has to respond by making it a priority, putting those resources towards and doing it,” Nurse said.

Despite having no comprehensive plan to eliminate them, the city is trying to shorten the time the bags stay on the sidewalk, asking New Yorkers to put them out at 8 p.m. instead of 4 p.m.