Adams Administration Marks 15 Million Pounds of Litter Removed from Highway Shoulders and Medians
Residents of Low-Density Buildings Purchase More Than 800,000 New NYC Bins Online to Get Trash Bags off Streets and Into Containers
Since Residential Containerization Rules Went into Effect, Rat Sightings Have Declined for Eight Straight Months
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Acting Commissioner Javier Lojan today announced three major milestones in their efforts to fight rats and deliver a cleaner city to all New Yorkers. First, the DSNY’s Highway Unit — created by the Adams administration in April 2023 — has removed more than 15 million pounds of litter and debris from highway shoulders and medians. Second, nearly a year ahead of a June 2026 deadline for buildings with one to nine residential units to start utilizing new bins, New York City residents and building managers have ordered more than 800,000 official NYC Bins online, along with 80,000 more purchased at Home Depot — a major milestone in the city’s effort to move trash off streets and into containers. Finally, new data shows the city’s approach is working in the war on rats: Since residential containerization requirements took effect eight months ago, rat sightings reported to 311 have declined each month, as shown in 311 data.
“It’s garbage to think we can’t have a cleaner city, and thanks to our ‘Trash Revolution’ we don’t have to; we are announcing three major milestones in our ongoing quest for a cleaner and more livable city for all New Yorkers,” said Mayor Adams. “When we declared that trash and filth would no longer be normalized, many doubted it could be done, but we took bold, immediate action and are proving the doubters wrong. We’ve now removed more than 15 million pounds of litter and debris from highway shoulders and medians, moved trash off our streets and into containers, reduced rat sightings — and that’s just the beginning. We’re proving what’s possible when government leads with urgency and purpose, and when that’s paired with an unmatched hatred for rats and trash.”
“As a 26-year veteran of this department, I can say from experience that the city is cleaner than it has been in at least a generation,” said DSNY Acting Commissioner Lojan. “Think back to just a few years ago, when mounds of black bags were a fixture on our sidewalks, swarming with rats at night, and many of our public spaces were cleaned inconsistently by a patchwork of entities. Thanks to Mayor Adams, New York’s Strongest now have the tools we need to clean our city, and we are delivering.”
New York City’s 1,100 miles of highways are gateways to the city, seen by millions of New Yorkers and visitors alike each year, and yet, for decades, cleaning shoulders and medians was sporadic and performed by several different agencies. To ensure that highways reflected the Adams administration’s commitment to a clean city, Mayor Adams formed the DSNY Highway Unit in April 2023 to clean these spacers on a more regular basis. This unit — which required specialized training and equipment — consists of seven vehicles, including a three-arm mechanical broom designed specifically for highway use. Since launching in April 2023, sanitation workers assigned to this unit have removed 15 million pounds of debris and their work continues daily. Every morning, a convoy of equipment and workers removes litter and debris — including car bumpers, water bottles, fast food packaging, and more — that dirty New York City streets and potentially turn into safety hazards on roads.
The administration’s commitment to getting trash out of bags and into containers has also reached a milestone: Ahead of a June 2026 deadline for buildings with one to nine residential units to use official NYC Bins, New York City residents and building managers have now officially ordered more than 800,000 NYC Bins online through the city, while ordering 80,000 more NYC Bins at Home Depot stores. With a price tag of less than half of comparable bins on the market, the official NYC Bin is high-quality, affordable, and the rats hate it.
Taken together, these efforts are working, as evidenced by the drop in rat sightings reported to 311 for eight consecutive months when compared to the same months a year earlier, and year to date, rat sightings are down 16.4 percent citywide.
Today’s milestones are part of Mayor Adams’ Trash Revolution — the citywide effort to move trash from black bags on the sidewalk to rat-resistant, closed containers. In October 2022, the Adams administration kicked off the Trash Revolution by changing set-out times for both residential and commercial waste from 4:00 PM — one of the earliest set-out times in the country — to 8:00 PM beginning the following April, while allowing for earlier set-out times if materials were in a container. This incentivization of containerization was paired with major changes to DSNY operations, picking up well over a quarter of all trash at 12:00 AM rather than 6:00 AM, particularly in high density parts of the city, and ending a practice by which up to one-fifth of trash had been purposefully left out for a full day. Also, in April 2023, DSNY published the “Future of Trash” report, the first meaningful attempt to study containerization models in New York City and the playbook to get it done.
Building on that groundwork, in July 2023, containerization requirements went into effect for all food-related businesses in New York City. These businesses — restaurants, delis, bodegas, bars, grocery stores, caterers, and more — produce an outsized amount of the type of trash that attracts rats. That same month, installation of the initial 10-block, 14-school, Manhattan Community Board 9 pilot containers began. In September 2023, commercial containerization requirements extended to chain businesses of any type with five or more locations in New York City. These chain businesses tend to produce a large total volume of trash.
In February 2024, Mayor Adams unveiled a new, automated, side-loading garbage truck and a new data-driven containerization strategy, affirming a commitment from Mayor Adams’ 2024 State of the City address to set New York City on the course to store all trash put out for pickup in containers. This truck was unveiled four years earlier than industry experts thought possible. The following month, in March 2024, container requirements went into effect for all businesses — of every type — in New York City to get their trash off the streets and into secure bins. Later that year, in November 2024, container requirements went into effect for low-density residential buildings — those with one to nine units — containerizing approximately 70 percent of all trash in the city.
Earlier this year, in the “Best Budget Ever,” Mayor Adams committed over $32 million in permanent funding for DSNY to keep New York City clean as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget. This decision permanently allocates resources to key aspects of Mayor Adams’ cleanliness agenda, establishing permanent high levels of funding to protect the cleanliness and quality of life of city neighborhoods for generations to come. In June 2025, Mayor Adams announced that — following the installation of approximately 1,100 on-street containers for residential trash from the largest buildings — 100 percent of trash in Manhattan Community Board 9 is now covered by containerization requirements.
