The Mamdani administration is exploring buying top-loading collection trucks for its new curbside trash bins, which would offset a forecasted increase in vehicles miles from the Department of Sanitation’s effort to get New York City’s off the sidewalk and into containers.
The Big Apple’s “Trash Revolution,” initially launched during the Adams administration, relies on side-loading trucks to collect street-side containers known as “Empire Bins.” But DSNY said in a recent environmental impact statement that it expects citywide trash containerization to require a stunning 1.2 million more driving miles, based on the need to run an extra vehicle down for each side of every block to empty the new containers.
Top-loading trucks could solve this problem by allowing trash haulers to collect trash from both sides of the street. Over the past decade, cities in South America and Europe have pivoted from side-loading trucks to top-loading collection vehicles that only need to perform one run — drastically cutting vehicle miles traveled, or VMT. City officials are exploring whether New York should follow suit.