The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has informed Council Member Joann Ariola that it is open to allow small businesses to sell the official NYC Bin, potentially expanding on an existing policy that names Home Depot as the only authorized retailer of the trash containers.
Ariola had written to DSNY and Mayor Zohran Mamdani last week calling on the city to allow hardware stores to sell the trash cans in a bid to support small businesses and improve access to the official bins.
She also called on the city to rescind an incoming requirement that homeowners must use the official NYC Bin by June amid reports that the city’s official manufacturer and online vendor Otto is experiencing significant issues.
DSNY mandated in November 2024 that all properties with one to nine residential units, including one and two-family homes, are required to use bins, 55 gallons or less, with secure lids for trash set out.
By June 2026, all properties will be required to use official NYC Bins or face a $50 fine for a first offense, $100 fine for a second offense and a $200 fine for all subsequent offenses. Bins cost $45 for the 35-gallon size and $53 for the 45-gallon size.
However, several outlets have reported that New York residents have struggled to find any official bins available to purchase, while DSNY confirmed to QNS last week that the agency is aware of “ongoing issues” with Otto, stating that the manufacturer is “failing to fulfil some orders” at present.
Those issues prompted Ariola to call on Mamdani and the DSNY to retract an incoming order requiring the use of the official NYC Bin by June and instead allow New Yorkers to use a trash can of their choosing.
In response, DSNY said the agency will only implement the order contingent on the successful resolution of ongoing issues with Otto. The agency added that the only current mandate in place requires home owners to containerize their trash in bins no larger than 55 gallons, which DSNY said has led to a significant reduction in rat sightings throughout the city.
“DSNY does plan on requiring residents to only use the official NYC Bin starting in June,” acting DSNY Commissioner Javier Lojan said in response to Ariola. “However, this is contingent on the successful resolution of the ongoing issues with our trash bin vendor, Otto Environmental Services.”
In response to QNS, a DSNY official said the agency is confident that the current manufacturing issue will be resolved by the June deadline.
DSNY has called for the use of official NYC Bins because they are custom-designed to work with new Sanitation trucks, which the agency states will help facilitate faster, safer and cleaner mechanized collection.
Ariola had also called on DSNY to allow small businesses across the city to sell NYC Bins, stating that residents without access to Home Depot stores currently face burdens in acquiring the trash cans. She added that said the current mandate was creating “unnecessary” hardship for small hardware stores and other stores that traditionally sold trash cans by “cutting them out of the equation entirely.”
Lojan informed Ariola that the agency is open to allowing smaller businesses sell the official bins and asked the Council Member to provide a list of businesses willing to stock them. However, he said businesses would only be permitted to sell the offician trash cans if they sell them at the same price as Home Depot, which he said would impact a business’s ability to make a “decent profit.”
“This means that any businesses selling the bins would have to give up store space, and the low price of the bins could potentially affect their sales, i.e., they would need to sell a significant number of bins in order to make a decent profit,” Lojan wrote.
Ariola said in a statement that she appreciated DSNY’s response but said the best way to support New York residents would be to “scrap the coming bin requirements entirely” after previously describing the rollout of the NYC Bin requirement as a “disaster” in her original letter to the agency.
