Brooklyn Rat Battle Gets Upgrade With High-Tech Trash Cans

BROOKLYN, NY — The city is kicking off plans to install hundreds of high-tech garbage bins in Brooklyn, aiming to clear sidewalks of trash bags and cut down on rats, officials announced this week.

The new European-style containers — known as Empire Bins — will be rolled out in Brooklyn’s Community Board District 2, which includes neighborhoods like Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, and Fort Greene. The initiative is part of a pilot aiming to containerize 100 percent of the district’s waste, expanding on a similar program launched in parts of Harlem over the past two years.

The Department of Sanitation will begin installing stationary, on-street Empire Bins at schools in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill this fall, with plans to expand the program next year to all schools and high-density residential buildings in the community district.

The milestone comes amid a steady decline in rat sightings across the city — in each of the nine months since containerization rules took effect for low-density housing last year, 311 reports of rats have dropped compared to the same period the year before.

“Our ‘Trash Revolution’ is delivering cleaner streets, a better quality of life, and nine straight months of fewer rat sightings. The rats are losing — and Brooklyn is next,” Mayor Adams said. “As the rats crash out, we are ramping up."

The Department of Sanitation said it will assign Empire Bins to all schools and residential buildings with more than 30 units, with access granted to property managers via key card. Buildings with 10 to 30 units will have the option—following direct outreach—to use an Empire Bin or switch to smaller “wheelie bins,” which are already required for properties with one to nine units citywide.

"Bin by bin, we are proving the naysayers wrong and showing the world that New York City can have clean streets and sidewalks, just like cities around the world have done for decades," DSNY Acting Commissioner Lojan said. "I have seen a lot of innovation in my 26 years with the Sanitation Department, but containerizing trash using on-street containers is by far the most significant."

The announcement marks another step in Mayor Adams’ “Trash Revolution” — a citywide push to replace black trash bags on sidewalks with rat-resistant, closed containers.

The initiative began in October 2022, when the Adams administration announced new set-out rules shifting residential and commercial trash placement from 4 p.m. — previously among the earliest in the country — to 8 p.m., starting in April 2023. Earlier set-outs are still allowed if the trash is in a container, encouraging citywide containerization.

DSNY also restructured operations to support the change, including moving more than a quarter of trash pickups to midnight instead of 6 a.m., and ending a practice where up to 20 percent of trash sat out for a full day.

In August 2023, New York City began requiring all food-related businesses — including restaurants, delis, bodegas, bars, grocery stores, and caterers — to use containers for their trash. These establishments generate a disproportionate amount of waste that attracts rats, making them a key target in the city’s rat mitigation strategy, officials said.

That same month, the city launched its first containerization pilot in Manhattan’s Community Board 9, installing bins across a 10-block stretch that included 14 schools.

The Empire Bins are emptied using North America’s first automated side-loading sanitation truck — a model developed years ahead of schedule by teams from Torino, Italy, as well as Hicksville and Brooklyn. The trucks, which require only two sanitation workers to operate, have been in use on the streets of West Harlem since April.

Officials said there is no set timeline yet for the full citywide rollout.

"Every day, we are making our city cleaner, safer, and a better place to raise a family, unless you’re a rat," Adams added.