Transcript: The Empire Bin Strikes Back... Against the Rats... as Next Phase of Trash Revolution Begins in West Harlem

June 2, 2025

Deputy Mayor Jeff Roth, Operations: Good morning. Thank you all for being here this morning. My name is Jeff Roth, I'm the deputy mayor for Operations. They say New York cannot be contained. They are wrong. 

New York City produces a lot of trash, the equivalent of [100 747s] every single day. But we've never had a dedicated space to collect it. Not really. Our trash has sat in leaky black bags in the overlooked in-between spaces in our city, against fences and city bike docks, crammed next to doorways and hydrants. And in a feat that surely earns them their moniker, New York's strongest have had to navigate all that street infrastructure for decades until now. 

This administration wasn't satisfied with smelly summer nights and critters skittering across our paths on our walks home and endless mounds of bags cluttering our precious, otherwise glorious public space. So first, we change set out times for our trash. We required food businesses across the city to containerize who put out the tastiest morsels for our critters and then chain businesses, all businesses and smaller residential buildings. But we're just getting warmed up. The trash revolutionary himself, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. And really hats off to DSNY Commissioner Lojan for really taking on the helm, getting it done. And I want to thank aour council partners as well, Councilman Abreu and others. And last week, we were with the Department of Parks to talk about what we were doing in the parks. Yesterday, we were with NYCHA to talk about what we're doing and the open spaces for our residents there. 

And it's all about quality of life. It's all about what we expect for ourselves, what we expect for New Yorkers. And this trash revolution is real. I stated it over and over again about my total dislike for our little rodents that run around our city. And we put in place an immediate revolution and people were dismissive of it, like they were dismissive of many of the initiatives that we stated. We were not going to normalize trash and filth in the city and rodents everywhere. 

And so our Empire Bins are striking back at rats and garbage in West Harlem. When I said four years ago that we were going to have cleaner streets and fewer vermins, the cynics rolled their eyes. They said it was not possible, it was something you have to just accept in New York because of the number of rodents we have in our city. And we said no to that. 

New York City is too big. They said the government moves too slow and no one will ever beat the rats. Well, that has proven to be untrue. They falsely believed that we were not going to hit it head on. We hired an amazing rat czar who took this initiative on the ground and she refused to take no for answers. Job well done. And as a result, we're here today looking at a fully containerized neighborhood and six straight months of fewer rat sightings. 

Manhattan Community Board 9 has now become the first New York City neighborhood to have 100 percent of this trash covered by containerization requirements. 100 percent starting in one community board and we will cascade throughout the remaining community boards. 59 community boards in the city and they are all going to embrace this concept. 

And the result speaks for themselves. We have clean sidewalks, clean corners and fewer rodents. In fact, the number of rat sightings reported to 311 has dropped for six months straight when compared to the same time period, 12 months prior. Our city is well on its way to looking as good as the people who live in the city. And that is our goal. That's our north star. 

And in a first for all in North America, first time in North America, we're using automated side loading trucks to service our Empire Bins, creating the continent's first fully containerized neighborhood. This is not done anywhere or else in the North America region. 

We were told that it would take us more than five years. And we said no to that. Department of Sanitation and the Commissioner Tisch and the entire team there. We were clear when we sat down at the beginning of the administration. We said five years were too long and we did just that for. So we worked with developers across the globe to unveil the prototype, which is now being used to service the streets of West Harlem. 

All of these changes have taken place with community input. It was crucial for this administration to sit down with the community, get their feedback and allow them to be part of this process because we know how challenging it is to have a major shift in any policy in the city. 

But with the feedback of the community and our extensive outreach, knocking on doors of every effective building to speak to residents, owners and builders, superintendents, roughly half of buildings with 10 to 30 units opted for an Empire Bin instead of a smaller will really bins for their trash. 

And DSNY staff will analyze the result of this pilot program. We're going to keep making sure we get feedback. We want to get it right as we go throughout the entire city. We want to make sure we iron out any kinks or uncertainties to have a qualitative program. 

And so our trash revolution has had many phases, starting with later set out times so that trash will not sit on the street for longer hours where rodents and other conditions will exist. And the requirements for small businesses as well as food related businesses across this city to containerize. We have also committed $32 million in permanent funding in our Best Budget Ever to keep our streets clean and free of trash bags and rats. 

Clean and safer streets are crucial parts of what make New York City the best place to raise children and families. We're really excited about these initiatives and our partners and particularly excited about those men and women who play a role that's behind us. Many women of DSNY do the job every day. They have not had too much practice on snow for the last four years. But let's be clear from cleaning the streets of trash, cleaning the streets of snow, cleaning the streets after parades, these are optimum professionals at doing their job. 

So I want to turn it over to the commissioner. But before we go to off topics, I turn it over to the commissioner. Two things I want to point out. One, crime stats. You know, you hear people say over and over again, the city is unsafe, cities out of control. They're using it as sound bites for their political reasons. But the numbers don't lie. Noises lie. 

Five straight months our shootings and homicides numbers are the lowest in recorded history. Lowest in recorded history. It is because of what the men and women of the Police Department, they're doing. This is such a win for New Yorkers. And it matches our holistic approach of preventing crime, going after young people with justice involved in our programs like CRED, summer youth employment and other entities. But it is also going after those who carry guns. 

We removed over 22,000 illegal guns. You can't have a shooting if you don't have a gun. And we removed over 22,000 illegal guns off our streets. And so hats off to Commissioner Tisch and the men and women of the New York City Police Department as we continue to drive down crime and our quality of life issues. 

And second, and most importantly, the sickening attack in Colorado. The increase of antisemitism we're seeing across the country, if not across the globe also, since October 7th. This attack really was despicable. And we all should be calling to denounce this attack. And this is why we started the [Office to Combat Antisemitism] as well as reaching out to the various groups in our city. 

As we come together and send a loud message that any form of hate has no place in this city in general, but specifically the increase we're seeing in antisemitism. You can't have 10 percent of the population experience 61 percent of the hate crimes. That's not acceptable. And what happened in Colorado was despicable. Our hearts go out to the families that are involved. 

And out of an overabundance of caution, we are increasing resources at religious sites throughout the city and during the sacred holy day of Shabbat. I want to turn it over now to the commissioner. Great job.

Acting Commissioner Javier Lojan, Department of Sanitation: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good morning. I'm Javier Lojan, the acting commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation. It's a great big day for us today, as you know. 

So in May of 1961, President Kennedy stood before Congress and committed that our country would put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period, he said, would be so impressive or so difficult to accomplish. This project called for a degree of dedication, organization and discipline that some cynics believe the United States simply couldn't deliver. Well, they were wrong. 

In February of 2024, Mayor Eric Adams stood in the streets of Manhattan and pledged that New Yorkers would put trash in bins. The inheritors of the same cynical mindset, the doubters, the haters, the rat lovers, said it was impossible. That mounds of trash bags are an inevitable part of our cityscape. 

When New Yorkers traveled to Amsterdam, Barcelona or Buenos Aires, they came back with stories of clean streets and containerized trash and then somehow still held the belief that New York City was so exceptional that dirty streets were a necessary part of our daily lives. 

But just as John F. Kennedy said, we choose to go to the moon in this decade and to do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. And that challenge is one that we are willing to accept and one which we intend to win. So, too, did this administration choose to get trash off the streets, not because it was easy, but because it was hard. 

We embarked on this project determined to turn the tide on generations of trash on the curbs, foul odor, oozing liquids and legions of rats, something that past city leaders dismissed as impossible. We spent months analyzing trash volumes, speaking with stakeholders, and looking at best practices around the world. We developed a policy, published a playbook and then, who would have thought, we began executing the plays. 

We drastically reduced the number of hours trash sits on our sidewalks. We moved commercial trash into bins. We moved low-density residential trash into bins. Every step of this was met with scoffs from the naysayers and the squeaks from the rats. But we remained determined to overcome the enemies of the trash revolution. And the results? Six straight months of declines in rat sightings. 

And finally, there was trash from high rises, the trash that people said we could never get into our containers. That remained the final challenge. Today, we are announcing that we have accomplished that, too. You are all standing in the very first neighborhood in North America to have its trash fully containerized with the use of stationary Austrian containers or, as they are known in New York, the Empire Bin. 

Over the last five weeks, we have installed roughly 1,100 of them throughout Manhattan Community Board 9. These bins are sturdy, rodent-resistant, and locked for use only by specific buildings and their staff. Servicing these Empire Bins required a truck that did not exist anywhere in North America. It had to be designed and built, a process industry expert told us it would take five years. We got a prototype built in less than one year. 

These trucks, operated by two sanitation workers, are now on the streets of West Harlem. And you're going to see one operate in a few minutes. Today, these automated side-loading trucks and Empire Bins are bringing cleaner streets, cleaner sidewalks, and fewer rats to all who live here. And tomorrow, we begin analyzing the results and working toward developing a timeline and process to expand this to other parts of the city. 

Again, we choose to do this not because it's easy, but because it's hard. When I started as a sanitation worker in 1999, the idea that we could get to where we are today seemed impossible. But in my 26 years since then, I've seen too many good people get hurt from throwing bags or get sick with leptospirosis.

I've seen too many neighborhoods asked to live with garbage chutes and rats all over the sidewalks. It doesn't have to be that way. Today, we have achieved a giant leap forward for our city. The completion of the Signature Adams Administration Initiative, a true revolution in how we handle our trash. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Roth: So no initiative can't be done without our community partners and advocates. We want to bring up one from the neighborhood, Andres Orejuela.

Andres Orejuela: I can't say how happy I am to be here. And the first thing I want to do is thank everyone up here for getting this program off of the ground. I'm from New York. I've lived here my entire life. 

I did spend three years living in Spain after I graduated from college. And I noticed in every city, the trash had a special container. Everywhere I went, I traveled the entire country. And I said, why can't we do that in New York? And when I got back to New York, everyone said, “Well, it can never happen”. And here we are today. It's happening. It's here. And I'm so happy. It's fantastic. 

Thank you. Thank you to the mayor. Thank you to the mayor, the city councilmember, the commissioner, everyone. I will say this. We've had some of those critters on our block. And we're seeing fewer of them. We're very happy. And I do think all of the naysayers will come around once they see all the rodents off of their block. Thank you so much.

Mayor Adams: Kelly, how are you? We're going to put a bin on your block. Don't worry.

Question: There are some bins, but [inaudible] many more. I wanted to ask, other than the rat sites being down, what other data can you point to that shows that it's actually working? And then, I know this is a pilot program, where else would you be looking to target? What other neighborhoods would you be able to target?

Acting Commissioner Lojan: So, since the pilot officially kicks off today, we're going to look at some of the operational perspectives, some of the cleanliness stats. So right now it's a little premature, but most of– the two main things that we're going to look at are rat sightings, operational effectiveness, and then cleanliness in the neighborhood. 

So those are the things we're going to start evaluating today once the pilot kicks off. And then after the one-year period, then we'll work closely with the administration and see which neighborhood has a better fit for moving forward to the next district.

Mayor Adams: And even if you take the rodents out of the equation, since the plastic bags are a throwback from the 60s, after the sanitation strike, we always used to put our garbage in garbage pails and garbage bins. And then after the strike, we allowed these plastic bags. 

They are horrific to look at. They cause problems with smell, cleanliness, and garbage should not be in bags on streets. They should be in a well-organized manner. And I agree, as was stated, you travel the globe, and when you speak to them, they say, what are garbage bags? People don't put their garbage, in organized countries, they don't put their garbage in plastic bags on streets. 

So we're really going back to the future, which we should have moved away from years ago. But it was too big. No one wanted to try it because it was too big. And you said it best. We're not doing it because it's easy. We're doing it because it's hard, and that's what we do in this administration.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you did comment briefly on the antisemitic attack in Colorado, but I'm wondering if there are any specific threats against New York City. Now, it's a holiday today. There's a lot of people on the streets. And I'm wondering what you would say to them, but also how the police use intelligence to prevent attacks like those in D.C. and in Colorado.

Mayor Adams: Well said. No, there are no specific threats to New York at all. But we have an amazing deputy commissioner of counterintelligence, Commissioner Weiner, and we are constantly monitoring not only what happens in other cities, what's happening across the globe, and monitoring all the noise in the usual places. 

And so when it comes down to our terrorist, anti-terrorist operations, much of it you don't see. But there's never a moment that Commissioner Weiner and her team remain quiet or silent. They are in a constant state of monitoring any noise out there. 

And thank God we have not had any major terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11. We foiled several, but the prevention is as important as responding. And that's what they do every day. They're good at what they do. They're constantly in the state of briefing and finding out what's happening across the globe.

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