Empire Bins arrive in Brooklyn: big curbside trash containers go in around Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene

The big gray on-street trash containers known as Empire Bins are arriving in Brooklyn. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced early Thursday that installation of the borough's first residential Empire Bins has started in Brooklyn Community District 2, NBC New York reported.

The district will be the second in the city, after Manhattan Community District 9 in West Harlem, to put all of its trash in containers, according to the Department of Sanitation (DSNY). City officials say the sealed bins cut down on rats, keep sidewalks clear of trash bags and make collection more efficient.

Where

Community District 2 covers Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Fulton Ferry, DUMBO, Vinegar Hill, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, DSNY said. NBC New York reported that more than 700 containers will replace piles of trash bags in the neighborhoods; in July, DSNY said it expected to install about 1,700 bins in the district. It was not immediately clear whether the 700 figure covers only the first phase.

Which buildings use them

• 31 or more apartments: required to register and use Empire Bins, which property staff open with a key card, according to DSNY.
• 10 to 30 apartments: could opt in during the July 1-31 registration window. Those that didn't must use official NYC Bins.
• 1 to 9 apartments: already required citywide to use official NYC Bins.

DSNY said in July that it would also pilot shared Empire Bins in Brooklyn for the first time, letting several smaller properties on the same block share one container. The bins are emptied by new side-loading trucks that have run in West Harlem since April, where roughly 1,100 bins have been in place for about a year, according to the agency. DSNY lists another online information session on its Empire Bins page for Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m.

What's next

The city plans to bring Empire Bins to six more community districts next year and containerize trash citywide by 2031, NBC New York reported. DSNY's list of next districts includes Bronx Community Districts 2 and 5, Queens 2, Manhattan 2, Brooklyn 8 and Staten Island 1. A proposed rule to make the program permanent and expand it is open for comment until Nov. 20; here's what it would mean for buildings.