Modernizing collection equipment

Choosing the right waste and recycling bins for an area can result in a cleaner community but also can have an impact on the aesthetics of an area as poorly designed bins can result in odors, pests or excess litter.

For New York City, that look had been a green mesh litter basket, a look that the city’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY) says had not changed in decades.

DSNY maintains about 23,000 litter baskets across the city and says the wire baskets were full of holes, which allowed liquids out and rats in.

“In 2018, the department launched a competition to redesign New York City’s corner litter baskets,” DSNY says. “A winner was announced in 2019, but the pandemic put the brakes on following through with the newly designed basket.”

In 2022, the department resurrected the winning basket design along with some additional tweaks. DSNY made the basket even bigger, added a coating of graffiti-resistant paint and moved the perforations up higher to deter rats.

This resulted in the Better Bin, a rat-resistant, leak-proof bin that DSNY says is easier and safer for sanitation workers to empty. The waste receptacle has three parts: a concrete base (making it tough to tip over), a hinged metal lid and a removable plastic basket.

“The modular design, the innovative hinged lid and the spacing at the base that keeps the trash away from the ground mean these baskets are easier for humans to use, harder for rats to abuse and a far better fit for New York City,” the department says. “The innovative design was named one of Time’s ‘Best Inventions of 2023.’”

Implementation and upkeep

In 2023, the department began placing Better Bins on New York City streets across all boroughs, methodically replacing the green wire baskets. Approximately 5,000 of the city’s public waste bins have been replaced with Better Bins since then, and the implementation is ongoing. During the next several years, the city plans to replace remaining wire litter baskets with Better Bins.

DSNY says each Better Bin costs about $1,100 and lasts longer than the former wire bins. The only part that needs to be replaced with wear and tear is the plastic insert, which costs about $80.

“These bins are for trash only,” the department says. “While we have some baskets on street corners for recycling, we find that many people treat them as trash cans, and contamination rates are very high.”

The city now has about 400 Smart Composting Bins, which residents can only access with a free smartphone app. DSNY says this helps ensure the bins are used for compostable material only.

New York City’s corner litter baskets—both Better Bins and green mesh—are emptied on a regular basis, but the exact frequency depends on the neighborhood. DSNY says in some areas, the baskets are serviced on residential collection routes roughly three days a week, but in higher-traffic areas, the baskets are emptied multiple times per day.

Photo courtesy of DPOB

City of Baltimore

The city of Baltimore was ready to make a change to its downtown area public waste disposal, as well, kicking off with a pilot initiative in February 2024. The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore (DPOB) brought in Citibin, a New York-based maker of storage containers and receptacles for waste and recycling, as its supplier for the pilot.

Liz Picarazzi, Citibin CEO and founder, says she started Citibin to address the rat issue in New York City but also because of the “eyesore” that trash bins can be when they’re placed in front of homes and businesses.

“In every city, they have the old-school cans, the 1,000-pound trash cans you can’t move that are very prone to rodents jumping in and out of them,” says Duane Saunders, DPOB senior vice president of operations. “They were old; they didn’t look good. It really made the downtown area look very dated.”

DPOB began the pilot project by choosing 40 areas throughout its 106 blocks to install the Citibins. Saunders says DPOB collected and analyzed data to select high-traffic areas that produce a large amount of waste.

After receiving a positive community response about the bins, DPOB has since dispatched about 195 Citibins. The bins have a modular design—some with extra storage and others providing for both recycling and waste.

Picarazzi says Baltimore has Citibin’s BasketPlus product, an enclosure with additional storage for full bags of waste awaiting collection. When a litter basket reaches capacity, the bag can be removed from the receptacle and stored in the BasketPlus’ additional compartment.

“It really made a noticeable difference and a noticeable change in downtown,” Saunders says. “You would see engagement, people actually putting their trash in the bins, instead of just dropping it wherever.”

The project wrapped up last September, and Saunders says it totaled about $850,000 in capital expense.

Photo courtesy of Bigbelly

Community engagement

DPOB collected 1.8 million pounds of waste last year, Saunders says, crediting the new waste bins. Prior to the Citibin initiative, he says the area experienced overflowing cans, despite DYOB servicing the bins seven days a week, multiple times per day.

Saunders says he appreciates Citibins’ overall rodent-proof design, including the slanted top that allows rain to run off, their grafitti-resistance and ease of cleaning.

The partners track how much waste is collected weekly. Saunders says the average shows they are collecting 25-33 percent more waste since the Citibins were implemented.

“We’ve gotten such positive feedback from the business community,” Saunders says. “We get calls monthly, like, ‘Hey, can we get a bin in front of our building?’ That lets us know we’re doing some things that are on point and that the community at large is actually paying attention to it.”

Picarazzi says a big selling point for Citibin is the ability to customize the enclosure with vinyl wrapping. She says many cities use it for public service messaging, branding or aesthetic purposes.

“We’ll generally see about 80 percent reduction in the need for collections. ... that was a really big savings.” — Brian Phillips

City of Philadelphia

The city of Philadelphia had similar goals, aiming to reduce collection, overflow and rodents to create a cleaner community.

Philadelphia’s litter basket supplier of choice is Bigbelly, a waste and recycling solutions provider headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts. The city has used Bigbelly bins since 2009 and partnered with the company in 2024 to refresh the units and double their footprint.

The city now has about 3,000 Bigbelly units, says Jeff Satwicz, Bigbelly vice president of business development.

“For Philadelphia, they were having labor challenges in hiring, maintaining labor and budget,” Satwicz says. “They were looking for solutions that could help with labor and also wanted to roll out public space recycling.”

Reducing labor

The city and Bigbelly collaborated on a case study to gather results from the initiative. According to the study—prior to the recent initiative—the city’s sanitation team collected 17 times per week across three shifts from the wire baskets, resulting in more than 1.5 million collections annually and substantial operating costs.

The collection frequency decreased from 17 times to three times per week following the initiative, requiring only one crew shift daily instead of three, according to the study’s results.

“We’ll generally see about 80 percent reduction in the need for collections,” BigBelly President Brian Phillips says. “In Philadelphia’s case, that was really big savings, giving them more flexibility on their collections [and] more time in their day.”

He adds that the savings in collection and cost allowed the city to redeploy its collection staff to pick up recycling bins or do other tasks.

The city of Philadelphia says the BigBelly bins update the department of sanitation on their mechanical condition using a cellular network, and the baskets use solar power to self-compact material.

The city says this results in less overflowing litter and more bin capacity, adding that requiring fewer compactor truck pickups leads to lower fuel consumption, lower greenhouse gas emissions and better air quality.

“Our bins keep waste completely contained and offer customers insights on their collections and capacity when they need it for that space,” Satwicz says.

The author is assistant editor for the Recycling Today Media Group and can be contacted at atrevarthan@gie.net.