Trash Container Zones Reduce Crashes by 15% in Harlem

Mamdani administration plans citywide rollout of curbside trash bins by 2031

Apr. 17, 2026 at 7:55pm

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A bold, colorful silkscreen-style illustration featuring multiple identical images of a bright orange trash bin or garbage truck repeated in a grid pattern, conveying the mass deployment of these sanitation assets across the city.The rollout of New York City's new curbside trash bins aims to improve both cleanliness and safety on neighborhood streets.Crown Heights Today

According to data analyzed by Streetsblog, crashes and serious injuries dropped 15% and 52% respectively in West Harlem after the city implemented a neighborhood-wide trash containerization program, requiring buildings with 30+ units to use curbside "Empire Bins." The Mamdani administration is now planning to expand the program to all five boroughs by 2031, with the first wave of new bins coming to Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island by the end of 2027.

Why it matters

The data shows that swapping parking spots for trash containers not only leads to better environmental outcomes like fewer rat sightings and less trash on the sidewalk, but may also have a positive effect on street safety. This is welcome news as the city prepares to bring the Empire Bin program to thousands more New Yorkers in the coming years.

The details

In the first week of June, the city finished its neighborhood-wide implementation of trash containerization in West Harlem, requiring every building with 30 or more units to put their trash in Empire Bins, the city's version of European-style trash containers. Since the city installed 1,100 curbside bins in Manhattan Community Board 9, crashes dropped from 668 in the 10 months before the bins arrived to 587 in the 10 months after (a 15% drop), and serious injuries dropped from 38 to 18 (a 53% drop). Injuries to pedestrians also fell by 9%.

  • In the first week of June, the city finished its neighborhood-wide implementation of trash containerization in West Harlem.
  • The data covers the 10 months before and 10 months after the bins were installed.

The players

Mamdani

The current mayor of New York City who is overseeing the citywide expansion of the trash containerization program.

Gregory Anderson

The New York City Sanitation Commissioner who discussed the logistics of building a supply chain for the specialized side-loading trucks needed to service the new trash bins.

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What they’re saying

“The era of Empire Bins is now dawning.”

— Mamdani, Mayor of New York City

“These bins, and more importantly, the trucks that service them, did not exist in North America two years ago. We are building a new supply chain that crosses the Atlantic Ocean to get those trucks here, built, and ready to use.”

— Gregory Anderson, New York City Sanitation Commissioner

What’s next

The city will bring the Empire Bin program to Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Weeksville in Brooklyn by the end of 2027, as well as neighborhoods in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

The takeaway

The success of the trash containerization pilot in Harlem demonstrates that the city's investment in curbside bins can deliver both environmental and safety benefits for local communities. As the program expands citywide over the next five years, it has the potential to make New York's streets cleaner and safer for all residents.