Small Co-ops and Condos Must Now Place Garbage in Secure Bins

Those ubiquitous mountains of black garbage bags, a magnet for rats and a fixture of New York City streets for as long as anyone can remember, are about to become a lot more scarce.

Beginning today, Nov. 12, all residential garbage from buildings with nine or fewer units — including co-ops and condos — must be set out at the curb in bins with secure lids. The new rules apply to the vast majority of the city’s buildings, Gothamist reports. About 88% of the roughly 1.1 million buildings across the five boroughs are residential properties with nine or fewer units, according to the city's Department of Buildings.

For now, the sanitation department’s new bin mandate for smaller buildings will be enforced with only written warnings. But on Jan. 2, 2025, co-op and condo boards and landlords who flout the rules will face fines of $50 that can rise to $200 for repeat violators. Recycling can still be set out on the curb in clear plastic bags, according to the rules.

“Residents can remind their owner or manager of the bin requirement, and any resident who sees a violation of containerization rules can call 311,” says sanitation department spokesman Vincent Gragnani.

While any bin with a secure lid is acceptable for now, sanitation officials are encouraging New Yorkers to go a step further and order standardized "NYC Bins" through the city online. Those bins will be mandatory in 2026. New Yorkers ordered more than 215,000 NYC Bins by Oct. 1, meaning they should have received them ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to comply with the new rules.

The sanitation department has required businesses to put their trash in containers since March. The agency is also moving ahead with plans to containerize garbage from larger residential buildings — including by installing large bins on streets in parking spaces.

If everyone follows the new mandate, 70% of the city's trash will be containerized, the sanitation department has said. Plans to deal with the other 30%, which includes buildings with more than 10 units, are getting underway: The first larger bins will hit the street in Upper Manhattan next spring.

Since this is New York City, grousing over the new container rule was inevitable. One Gothamist reader had this to say: "A good first step, if it's enforced. But the most offensive trash mountains in my neighborhood are always outside the huge 40+ unit buildings, as well as the schools and office buildings."