Generations in the making, the new, sleeker receptacles will soon replace the iconic green mesh bins.
Three of the new litter baskets were posed for a portrait at a popular selfie spot in Brooklyn. Credit... Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times Contemporary Litter Bins
Coming to a street corner near you: a sleek new litter basket, the latest weapon in New York City’s generations-long war on trash.
The new receptacle, which will replace the green wire mesh litter baskets seen across the city, has three parts: a concrete base (so it’s tough to tip over); a hinged metal lid; and a removable, relatively lightweight plastic basket that sanitation workers will lift and empty.
“The wire litter baskets are iconic, but they are well past their useful life in New York City,” said Jessica Tisch, the city’s sanitation commissioner. “They are vestiges of a different time.”
Ms. Tisch noted that the wire baskets were made up of a series of holes: “That’s the fundamental design feature which allows the rats to get in them,” she said.
“The one thing that actually no one wants to see is all the trash,” she added. “So why are they mesh in 2023? It doesn’t make sense.”
The new trash cans, alongside efforts to require certain residences and businesses to put their garbage on the streets in containers and to mandate composting (not to mention hiring a “rat czar”), are part of a broad push to clean up the city — an undertaking that also includes using social media to scold businesses that have not complied with the new rules.
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