NYC Sanitation, Sanitation Foundation Unveil Five New 'Trucks of Art' Featuring Local Artists
May 19, 2026
Newly painted collection trucks will highlight cleanliness, sustainability and New York's Strongest as they pick up trash, recycling and compost across the five boroughs
The New York City Department of Sanitation and its nonprofit partner the Sanitation Foundation unveiled the latest round of Trucks of Art, a unique art project that challenges artists to beautify five 23-ton collection vehicles with hand-painted designs. The selected artists used their nearly 400 square feet of "canvas" to highlight cleanliness, sustainability and New York's Strongest, the 7,500 uniformed men and women who keep New York City clean, safe and healthy.
The five featured artists were chosen from among more than 400 submissions, which were evaluated by a team of DSNY personnel, Sanitation Foundation staff and board members, as well as special guests Nick Heller (better known online as NY Nico) and Emmy Award-winning host, producer and author Andy Cohen. The committee selected designs centered on the themes of cleanliness, recycling, composting, and/or honoring the DSNY workforce. In addition to these themes, design considerations included uniqueness of design, complexity of design, and potential for a flexible palette, as no colors could be guaranteed in advance.
"This is art at work," said Deputy Mayor for Operations Julia Kerson. "After today, these trucks aren't going to sit on a corner or fill a museum, they'll be on the streets immediately, helping New York's Strongest haul millions of pounds of trash, recycling, and compost every day. Thank you to the incredible artists and the workers of DSNY for reminding New Yorkers that public service is something to be marveled at."
"Department of Sanitation collection trucks perform a critical task, removing the 24 million pounds of material New York City residents set out every day," said DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson. "At the same time, they are an integral part of New York City's streetscape, and by commissioning local artists to turn these trucks into roving works of art, DSNY and the Sanitation Foundation are uplifting neighborhoods, showcasing local artistic talent and reminding New Yorkers to help us keep our city clean."
"At the Sanitation Foundation, we believe every New Yorker has a role to play in caring for this city," said Caryl Englander, Board Chair of the Sanitation Foundation. "Trucks of Art is a visible reminder of that shared responsibility, celebrating New York-based artists, local communities, and the DSNY workers who help care for our city every day."
"Trucks of Art brings together so much of what makes New York great: creativity, neighborhood pride, and the people who keep the city moving," said Andy Cohen. "I'm proud to support a project that celebrates local artists and DSNY workers in such a public, joyful way."
"Public art has the power to surprise and delight New Yorkers, and Trucks of Art is a brilliant example of transforming everyday infrastructure into canvases for joy," said Julie Stein, Executive Director of the Union Square Partnership. "We are proud to host this year's kickoff in Union Square alongside our partners at DSNY."
The selected artists painted their trucks over a seven-day period at the Department of Sanitation's Central Repair Shop in Maspeth. Trucks of Art was also a zero-waste challenge, with artists using cans of New Yorkers' unwanted paints collected through Materials for the Arts and partners including Big Reuse and GreenSheen, a partner of PaintCare.
Each artist received a stipend for their work, thanks to the Sanitation Foundation and its generous sponsors, including Mack and PaintCare. To further its mission of keeping the city clean, the Sanitation Foundation organized two community cleanups Tuesday in the area surrounding Union Square.
Following Tuesday's unveiling, each of the five trucks will be sent to Sanitation garages, where they will immediately begin collection routes.
This is the Department's third Trucks of Art program. Learn more about the 2019 and 2022 Trucks of Art programs.
B-roll available. Photos and additional video available upon request.
The 2026 artists include the following:
Marieke Perchik Bender
Originally from Brooklyn and now living in Queens, Marieke is a bona fide "garbage geek" through and through. Through outdoor education and art, she inspires New York City's youth to not only participate in but also advocate for sustainable practices such as recycling, reusing, and respecting our city's green spaces and diversity. Marieke has worked in parks across the city birding, fishing, and gardening with learners of all ages. Outside of work, she is in community with others who appreciate the systems that keep our city moving: the urban gardeners, the composters, the menders, and all those who work towards a clean, safe city for all.
"This design is inspired by my childhood imagination and is designed to give folks a good laugh while thinking about where our trash goes," Bender said of her truck design. "New Yorkers are tough, but DSNY workers are tougher! This design celebrates a long history of customization and street art: a yawning mouth is ready to catch recyclables, compost, and trash; fierce eyes recognize all of us as we do our part for a clean and sustainable New York City. First popularized by air combat pilots during the Second World War, planes bearing grinning shark mouths were created to intimidate enemies and inspire troops. Today, our enemies are waste, greed, and indifference. Our goals are circular economies and cleaner streets. This truck is here to help: This Machine Cleans Cities! New York's Strongest are the workers who inspire us all to chip in and put our trash in the right place. To the crew who works with this truck along your daily route: it wouldn't be the same NYC without you. Thank you."
The truck Bender painted will serve Queens Community District 1.
For more information, visit RhymesWithPaprika.com.
Lauren Stewart
Lauren Stewart studied illustration, dreamed of New York City since childhood, and made that dream a reality in 2017 through a Starbucks employee store transfer. When the pandemic eliminated her barista job, she took a leap of faith to pursue art full time, a path that ultimately led to tattooing. Recently, she has also returned to painting and become more active in the community, setting up art stands in public spaces several days a week with the hope of connecting with new people through drawing and creativity.
"I used Lady Liberty as a symbol for the DSNY workforce because both are fixtures of the pride and hard work so deeply ingrained in this city," Stewart said of her truck design. "I wanted to give the design a hand-drawn, fluid look, just as our city always moves. Some may find New York to be a little rough, but cohesively, it always comes together—it's beautiful when you stand back and observe from a distance. Keep clean — NYC should always be given the respect of cleanliness. Keep green — by keeping it clean we can focus more on the green and let it thrive. I especially admire the tulips down Park Avenue when they bloom every spring. Thanks to DSNY for keeping NYC clean!"
The truck Stewart painted will serve Queens Community District 10.
For more information, visit Lauste.xyz.
Allison Bouganim
Allison Bouganim is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and comedian based in New York City. Her work is driven by humor, joy, and surprise, using those elements to shift how people see and move through the world around them. She is best known for her interactive sculptures, which combine storytelling, comedy, and absurdity to invite participation rather than passive observation. Many of her works have appeared as guerrilla installations throughout the city, transforming sidewalks, streets, and unexpected corners into temporary mobile art galleries. Bouganim embraces unconventional materials, untraditional locations, and challenges the idea that art belongs only in pristine gallery spaces.
"This project uses postage stamps as a metaphor for New York City's diverse and vibrant community, while also highlighting the often-invisible labor of Sanitation Workers who move waste out of the city," Bouganim said of her truck design. "Discarded objects become fragments of personal stories, like unfinished love letters written collectively by a community. Like old friends sending letters through the mail, these workers carry the remnants of daily life from one place to another, sustaining the city's continuous cycle. Digging through someone's trash is one of the most intimate ways to understand who they are, offering an unfiltered and deeply private glimpse into everyday life. Together, these elements explore the connection between community, labor, pride for our home and circularity, revealing how what we discard continues to speak about who we are."
The truck Bouganim painted will serve Brooklyn Community District 10.
For more information, visit allisonbouganim.com.
Thought Matter
Thought Matter is an independent New York City design and creative studio founded by Tom Jaffe and led by Jessie McGuire. Its leadership team also includes Group Creative Director Able Parris and Executive Operations Director Jennifer Bono. The studio received the 2026 National Design Award for Communication Design from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, recognizing a decade of collaborative work shaped by imagination and public engagement. Thought Matter works across culture, commerce, and civic life, partnering with organizations such as the Times Square Alliance, Street Vendor Project, and 100 Gates Project to create work that influences how people experience and move through the city.
"Thought Matter designed CARE IN MOTION to honor the DSNY workforce by making their labor visible and reframing routine street encounters as moments of mutual respect and civic engagement," the Thought Matter team said of their truck design. "Informed by New York City's visual systems, where bold color, striping, and all-caps lettering signal action, the truck uses New Yorkers' no-nonsense style of language to communicate directly with the public. Guided by DSNY's Anthropologist-in-Residence Robin Nagle's insight that sanitation workers are often invisible until they cause inconvenience, Thought Matter's design makes care visible and shared. Rather than offering symbolic praise, the design operates in real time by acknowledging sanitation workers' presence while inviting patience, awareness, and shared responsibility from drivers, pedestrians, and onlookers. Bold headlines are placed strategically across the front and sides of the truck to meet New Yorkers where interaction happens most: in moments of pause, delay, and proximity."
The truck Thought Matter painted will serve Manhattan Community District 12.
For more information, visit thoughtmatter.com.
Catherine Witherwax
Catherine Witherwax is a Brooklyn native and Rhode Island School of Design alum currently working as a freelance illustrator, designer, and builder. She has spent five summers as an art teacher at the Brooklyn Museum, teaching and creating with children from across New York City.
"My mural submission shines a humorous light on the stakes of garbage collection," Witherwax said. "If a society has no sanitation workers, then, in the words of Pac Man—Game Over. I was inspired by Pac Man for this mural because the nature of the game requires constant adaptation, doubling back, and total thoroughness, collecting at every corner of the map. I replaced the shiny fruit with classic New York food waste, and the ghosts with rats. It's a familiar format that will make civilians draw personal comparisons to the difficulty and importance of garbage collection, as well as their own waste generation."
The truck Witherwax painted will serve Brooklyn Community District 1.
For more information, visit witherwax.org.
About the New York City Department of Sanitation
The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) keeps New York City clean, safe, and healthy by collecting, recycling, and disposing of waste, cleaning streets, attacking the scourge of illegal dumping, and clearing snow and ice. The department operates 59 district garages and manages a fleet of more than 2,000 rear-loading collection trucks, 450 mechanical brooms, 705 salt spreaders, and several dozen bike lane operations machines. The department is aggressively cleaning more parts of the city than ever before, including over 1,000 long-ignored areas spread across every neighborhood. With the highest wintertime uniformed headcount in 20 years, DSNY is more equipped than ever to remove snow and ice from the approximately 19,000 lane miles of City streets.
About the Sanitation Foundation
The Sanitation Foundation is the official non-profit partner of the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY). We support the work of DSNY to clean up the city and reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. Our work is designed to create ways for individuals, corporate partners, institutions, and community groups to participate in creating a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable NYC. For more information, visit sanitationfoundation.org.
Press Release #26-21