New York City's $1,000 trash can of tomorrow ready to debut

Futuristic garbage cans will soon appear on New York City streets following a delay tied to a feature of the newfangled $1,000 trash receptacles.

The cans, designed by Group Project, have a lightweight plastic liner inside a perforated metal and concrete shell, topped by a swinging lid. The first shipment of 300 trash cans arrived this month and will be installed around the city in the next few weeks, said Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

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They’ll be hitting the streets four weeks later than expected because of complications tied to the liner, which is made of high density polyethylene manufactured in Portugal. Problems with the custom-designed liner mold delayed the fabrication of the next generation of New York City garbage cans, sanitation officials said.

“I had all of the gorgeous outer shells but none of the baskets that sat in them,” Tisch said at a City Council hearing on Tuesday.

The cans were designed by Group Project, which won a competition four years ago to create a successor to the green metal cans that are a mainstay of city street corners. Colin Kelly, a lead designer at the company, told Gothamist that manufacturing the mesh was a “highly specialized process” known as injection molding.

“It's easier to make the stand and the metal portion [of the trash can] than it is to make the liner,” said Kelly, who added the delay was a common problem when manufacturing new products.

A majority of the old cans are green metal mesh and based on a design that hasn’t changed since the 1930s, according to the sanitation department. The large holes in the mesh make it easy for trash to leak and attract rats. Sanitation workers sometimes have difficulty emptying them into garbage trucks because they are so heavy, according to the department.

“This is a priority, to get all of those mesh wire and defunct litter baskets replaced,” Tisch said at the hearing.

The new cans are produced by Quebec-based Roy Metal Products Inc., which signed a $25 million contract with the city in February.

The city has ordered another 1,000 cans and aims to replace all 23,000 street garbage cans over the next few years, depending on funding.