The Civic Issue
Many NYC neighborhoods are underserved by public trash cans, while old wire-basket cans overflow and attract rats. The city is replacing them with standardized sealed litter bins, but the rollout is uneven — Manhattan gets priority while outer boroughs, particularly the Bronx and Staten Island, remain underserved. BigBelly solar-compacting bins are deployed in high-traffic areas but cost significantly more.
Headline Spending
$1.5M
identifiable in budget
Budget Lines (Adopted)
$1.4M
3 lines
Vendor Spending
$2.6M
2 vendors
| Line | Adopted | Spent |
|---|---|---|
Street Baskets CLEANING & COLLECTION-OTPS | $1.4M | $1.1M |
ARP FRF Sunday & Holiday Basket Service CLEANING & COLLECTION | $0 | $0 |
ARP FRF Weekday Basket Service CLEANING & COLLECTION | $0 | $0 |
| Big Initiatives Incorporated | $1.8M | 9 txns |
| BIG BELLY SOLAR LLC | $771.3K | 82 txns |
Total Identifiable Spending
$1.5M adopted in "Street Baskets" budget line + $2.6M in vendor spending (Big Initiatives + BigBelly Solar) = ~$4.1M dedicated to public trash can infrastructure and servicing
DSNY has a named budget line — "Street Baskets" — with $1.45M adopted for FY2026 and $1.09M spent so far (72% execution rate). Two major vendors support the program: Big Initiatives Incorporated ($1.83M, 9 transactions) appears to be a waste management consulting or implementation firm, and BigBelly Solar LLC ($771K, 82 transactions) provides the solar-powered compacting trash cans deployed in high-traffic areas. The ARP (American Rescue Plan) lines for "Sunday & Holiday Basket Service" and "Weekday Basket Service" show $0 — these pandemic-era federal funds have been exhausted. The total visible spending of ~$4.1M covers both the basket infrastructure (bins themselves) and servicing.
The "Street Baskets" line covers the OTPS (other than personal services) costs — contracts, supplies, equipment — but not the labor cost of emptying the baskets. That labor is embedded in the $285.6M BCC (Bureau of Cleaning and Collection) ADMINISTRATION payroll, which covers all sanitation workers doing street cleaning, basket collection, and curbside pickup. The actual number of public trash cans citywide and their distribution by borough isn't visible in the budget data. Capital purchases of new standardized bins may be mixed into DSNY's broader equipment budget ($139M total equipment spending). The equity dimension — whether baskets are proportionally deployed across all neighborhoods — cannot be determined from budget data alone.
Key Context
NYC maintains approximately 23,000 public litter baskets across the five boroughs. The city has been replacing traditional open wire baskets with enclosed bins that prevent rat access and wind-blown litter. BigBelly solar-compacting bins (cost ~$4,000-$5,000 each) can hold 5x the waste of a standard basket and wirelessly alert when full, reducing collection trips. The $771K in BigBelly spending covers servicing and possible new unit deployments. The broader push toward containerization (Concerns #2-3) is transforming how waste is managed on streets, and public basket modernization is a parallel but smaller track. Two former ARP-funded budget lines for basket servicing have zeroed out, suggesting federal pandemic relief is no longer subsidizing this service.