Mayor Adams’ Administration Unveils Side-Loading Trash Truck and Containers for Buildings

By Hamodia Staff

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the implementation of his commitment made in his State of the City Address to containerize all trash in New York City, with the introduction of a new side-loading trash truck four years ahead of schedule. This strategy was necessitated by the proliferation of rats throughout the city who feed off of trash that is left on the streets.

To eliminate the large number of rodents, the mayor ordered that all trash put out by residents and businesses be stored in rodent-resistant containers with secure lids and will no longer be allowed to be put curbside in plastic bags.

“The new garbage truck we’re unveiling today — four years ahead of schedule — represents the future of New York City garbage collection,” Mayor Adams said. “It means we’ll be able to containerize trash from our large residential buildings, something people didn’t believe would be possible in our dense city. And thanks to that truck and our commitment to turning our streets from mean to clean, residents of Manhattan’s Community Board 9 will be the first in the city to experience our streets free of every single black bag.”

The all-new, automated, side-loading garbage truck unveiled by the administration on Thursday, February 1, will remove a major barrier to containerizing trash from high-density residential buildings. This type of truck is needed to service the stationary on-street containers that high-density buildings will be required to use to containerize their trash.

Less than one year ago, industry experts estimated that development of this prototype truck would take up to five years, but the rapid development of this prototype — which took place in Torino, Italy and in both Hicksville and Brooklyn, New York — will allow the Department of Sanitation to acquire them and begin testing and training in the immediate future.

Buildings with 31 or more residential units will be required to use stationary, on-street containers for their trash, which will be serviced by the new automated side-loading garbage truck. Buildings with 10 to 30 units will be able to choose between stationery on-street containers and smaller wheelie bins. Buildings with one to nine residential units will be required to put their trash in individual wheelie bins starting this fall, and will be required by all residential units with one to nine units around the summer of 2026.

A pilot program on 10 residential blocks and at 14 schools in Manhattan Community Board 9 is underway, with buildings using wheeled containers that sanitation workers wheel to the back of a conventional collection truck retrofitted with a tipping mechanism. Rat sighting complaints in the pilot zone dropping by 68 percent compared to the same period the prior year. The district will be the first one with 100 percent of its trash containerized and serviced next year when the new side-loading trucks are introduced in that zone. When they become available, the wheeled bins will be removed and replaced with stationary on-street containers like those used in Europe, Asia, and South America.

Last August, containerization requirements went into effect for all New York City food-related businesses — restaurants, delis, bodegas, bars, grocery stores, caterers, etc. — who produce lots of the type of trash that attracts rats. In September, commercial containerization requirements extended to chain businesses of any type with five or more locations in New York City, and starting March 1, 2024, secure container requirements will go into effect for all businesses in New York City.