People who live on Staten Island, Manhattan, or the Bronx can order a free official New York City waste bin before Mayor Eric Adams's program starts on October 6.

Bins Full of Balloons.Photo byDanny Daly From Flickr

The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) said Thursday that residents of those boroughs could buy free bins on their website until October 28.

Beginning October 6, people who live in residential buildings in the five boroughs, including those who own single-family homes, will have to separate their organic waste from their other trash.

City officials are putting in place different rules for companies, schools, and other non-residential buildings.

Recycling At The Curb

In Brooklyn and Queens, you can recycle at the curb since more than a year ago.

As soon as the program starts, you will have to separate your organic waste from your normal trash.

Yard trash, like grass clippings and leaves, will not have to be picked up by the city for three months. Also, food trash and things that have been soiled by food, like paper plates, will not have to be picked up until next spring.

Collection of Organics

Organics will be collected at the curb in the same way that other recyclables are. As soon as the curbside compost program starts, people should put out their organic waste on the same day and at the same time as their recycling.

Residents of the city will have to put their food waste in separate bins that are labeled and no bigger than 55 gallons. Any bag can be used to stuff the bins. For $43.47, you can also buy an official 21-gallon New York City bin from a private seller.

If New Yorkers have a lot of leaves or grass clippings, they can put them in brown paper bags or clear plastic bags and put them outside the bin. Yard waste can also go inside the bin. You can tie together big sticks and twigs that are less than 2 feet by 4 feet and leave them outside the bin.

The city says that trash cans inside and outside should be cleaned often and that bags should be put inside cooking trash cans.