Despite record funding for new litter baskets across New York City, data shows trash can access is still inequitable across the five boroughs.
Mayor Eric Adams announced in May his intent to invest $31 Million by 2028 for new litter baskets across the city. He said at the time that the funding would “protect the cleanliness and quality of life of city neighborhoods for generations to come.” The New York City Department of Sanitation also said it’s in the process of replacing all wire mesh baskets with Better Bins, which are rat-resistant, leak-proof and harder to misuse with household trash.
Currently, however, high income neighborhoods have much greater access to litter baskets than lower income neighborhoods, an analysis of Department of Sanitation data by The NYCity News Service shows. Communities with a median household income of higher than $100,000 per year have more than double the number of litter baskets per capita compared to neighborhoods where the income is less than $97,000.
Working class neighborhoods — with an income between $32,000 and $100,000 per year — have an average of just 241 trash cans per 100,000 residents. High income neighborhoods have an average of 528 trash cans per 100,000 residents.
More than a third of the city’s 25,000 public garbage cans are concentrated in the wealthiest 15 neighborhoods.
A 2022 study from Columbia University found that lower income neighborhoods in New York City frequently have less access to public trash cans. The study also found that access to trash cans impacts public impressions of a neighborhood.
Take Central Harlem, for example. The community ranks 9th out of 12 Manhattan community districts in trash bins per capita. The Central Harlem community board has ranked garbage and sanitation concerns as a top issue since at least 2019. “The visible presence of litter and trash detracts from the appeal of high-traffic areas, including the commercial corridor of 125th Street, and contributes to rodent infestations,” The Community Board wrote in its most recent Community Needs Assessment.
Central Harlem had the lowest street cleanliness score in Manhattan last year, according to the Mayor’s Office of Operations. The district has ranked last or second to last in street cleanliness since 2018, the latest year data is available.
The median household income in Central Harlem is 36% lower than the citywide median of $79,480, according to New York University’s Furman Center. Leaders of the low income neighborhood said that the lack of access to garbage cans in their community is perpetuating harmful and inaccurate ideas about Central Harlem as a dirty or run-down place.
“Our push for cleaner streets is about more than garbage,” said Barbara Askins, a lifelong Harlem resident and director of the 125th Street Business Improvement District. “It’s about changing the perception of Harlem.”