I'm not sure removing trash cans from subway platforms is the best idea, but I guess it's worth a try.

In my experience, the trash cans tend to be full. Perhaps changing garbage bags more frequently would help. Or, you know what? Banning eating in subway stations and on cars may not be a bad idea.

If there are no garbage cans, maybe there will be no garbage? The MTA hopes so. On Sunday, the transit agency is expanding a pilot program that removes garbage cans from subway station platforms. It relies on straphangers to carry out the trash they bring into the system.

New MTA Chairman Joe Lhota says the pilot program launched at two stations in October reduced the amount of garbage, as well as the number of track fires. This weekend, eight more stations will be added to the list. Will it work?

Is it smart to remove trash cans from subway stations in hopes of making them cleaner? Do you think straphangers will toss their garbage on the tracks or take it out of the station? How dirty are New York City subways, and how would you clean up the system?

Send your thoughts using the link above.

Big mistake. who wants to carry their trash for so long.

Rosalie from Brooklyn.

They have to be kidding! It will not work people will leave the garbage anywhere and subways will be dirtier with even more rats. Just another hairbrained scheme to save a buck.

Belinda forest hills

This is the worst The City has been.

Take the garbage where - when garbage cans are removed from street corners also.

What are these people getting paid to do then?

This is absolutely the worst administration in a very long time.

No clue about reality living and living in the city.

They could protest, but the fact is, this administration has ruined the city.

Makes one appreciate Guliani.

Esmerelda, East Village, NYC

It's ridiculous. Remove the cans and people will just throw garbage on the platform or tracks. This is magical thinking, take the cans away and the garbage will disappear? Does this make any kind of sense? The Dept of sanitation removed a lot of litter baskets in Brooklyn because they couldn't staff the routes and the streets are strewn with trash - but not in manhattan. This is what we've come to and it's shameful

Meryl from Manhattan

If there are no trash cans, the average person will just toss it on the platform and/or tracks. Especially if this trash is created while on their way to work. They're not going to continue to carry it to the office with them and discard of it there.
What's going to happen is the MTA will be cleaning trash from all over the subway station instead of just emptying trash cans. Not a wise move, in my opinion.

Jessica, Arden Heights Staten Island

Nay sayers who think that removing trash cans will not reduce the amount of trash, I say this:

The PATH train has no trash cans. It hasn't had trash cans in decades, and those platforms are spotless!

This will work!

J

They just want to write more tickets and take people to jail

Anonymous

We should take a page from Singapore's example. Prohibit food in the system. Keep the cans. The same way you can get fined for occupying two seats with a bag you should get fined for littering. Its all about enforcement or is it all about laying off subway maintenance personnel? Hmmmm?

Jimmy from the Bronx.

The MTA is spending a fortune on the 2nd ave. subway. If they don't have the money to keep the existing subway system clean and rat free, what do they expect to do with an additional subway line. Why expand when you can't maintain the existing infrastructure.

Marty
Upper East Side

There's going to be a spill-over effect. The sanitation dept will not be able to keep up with added trash in the streets, if people really do take it with them. They won't take it with them to their destination.

Enrique from Astoria

Remember the boulevard of death(queens blvd) ? And how something was finally done after 20+ people were killed? Well, same here, what are they waiting for? A huge track fire? It's sad, but you go to other states and places are spotless!! Shame on New Yorkers for littering and MTA for their price hikes!!

Pilarica

I think it is a very dumb idea. I live in the "projects" and the trash cans were removed here...not sure why. Now the people leave the trash on the benches, throw it in the grass and in the hallways. I think it is just another service cut from the MTA not having to run the trash pick up trains. I think its going to cost more and cause more delays from having to pick up the trash from the tracks.

John

The MTA says that it is a successful program? Hmmm... a little bias. Let's hear from the straphangers that patronize these stations! Seems like MTA has already made their decision- normal for this monopoly!

Tom from Jamaica, Queens

empty the garbage cans for most of us who will put trash in the cans simple.

Sharon

John this is just another ploy by a big company to eliminate jobs

don

New Yorkers need to stop being spoiled brats and respect the subway as a transit hub, not a place to do all your morning stuff or lunch or snacks... etc. Lots of cities outside of the USA don't permit people to dump their trash in the subway stations. New Yorkers need to learn!

Maritza

Another dumb idea from the MTA board that doesn't ride the trains. How about a comprehensive eradication of the rats?

Simone - Manhattan

absurd. an example of MTA putting its own slant in front of its requirement to meet needs of riders.

Riders need trash cans to drop chewing gum wrappers, bags, newspapers. They do not need t o carry their trash out of the subways to look for cans somewhere on the street.

MTA magic. Trash disappears if we do not provide a place for our riders to put it.

An example of extreme arrogance. An attitude from Peter Kalico days. Fewer stops . Less service to increase profit..Foolish..these moves, like elimination of entries, reduces ridership and reduces income. The MTA personnel who made this decision...take out the trashcans...should be fired or removed from the system. A sick decision, as sick as the attempt to sell it to the public.

MTA exists for its riders...not the otherway around. Your station should not swallow the nonsense...give it creditability by quoting it. Pure absurdity, and you are responsible for revealing it as such! The answer is an increase in trash cans and MTA facilities to empty them.

Get with it!

Peter

Send all the trash and rats to the Mayors house he has the money to deal with it.

Chris from Richmond Hill Queens.

How Pathetic

How about getting rid of the rats instead.

I have lived in the city for 24 years I have never seen so many rats crossing in front of people like I have been seeing recently, we New Yorkers are used to seeing them but the way it is now it looks like they are multiplying at a pace that is out of control it’s actually very scary.

So garbage cans in rats out pleaaaase!

Marcio

"They saw a reduction in trash at the stations after removing the trash cans..." Well of course ..... No trashcans = No trash. Who the hell is running things at the MTA? Just close the station and you will effectively reduce the roving gangs of marauders that secretly horde trash in their pockets...

James

The rats have already left the subway stations and moves into the management office. Either these idiots don't ride the subway or they are looking to collect fines

John

Anyone caught throwing trash in the subway, should be arrested and assigned to a week of subway cleaning, at minimum wage, 8 hrs per day, for every offense. The city will make arrangements with your employer, and/or school to allow the time off.

Steve, from Jamaica.

We live in Clearwater Beach Fl. and have the same problem. Beaches have to be cleaned each day, people don't use the trash cans

Bee Beach

The MTA want to cut costs corners. The place is they say are clean they have cleaners to clean the station try doing that and other stations all station

danny

I have been living here for 2 months. I lived In London People eat on the tube in London tubes but other users tell people " hey mister your dropped your mcdonald's bag" or hey don't drop your litter also we do not have any bins in our tube network because of the ira bombings I the 1980s

Paul

I think all 3 options not enough correct options (more trash cans, no trash can, and more cleaning person)

Ali

The problem with the NYC subway system is far more extensive than the trash cans that are or are not present. The subway platforms above 59th street on all lines all look like one big trash can in themselves - filthy walls, floors and benches, paint peeling from ceilings in huge sheets, rusted metal where paint is just slopped over layer after layer.

This is an enormous embarrassment for the "greatest city in the world"! The stop for Columbia Presbyterian on the A line must have been beautiful at one point if one could see the fixtures and lovely tile work beneath the decades of filth. The Cloisters stop at 190th on the A train looks like a filthy, decrepit stop at the city dump instead of representing a stop where thousands of visitors arrive each year from all over the world to view the medieval collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Elevators at the various subway stops break down on a regular basis. Older people are forced to climb endless stairs.

Instead of the MTA officials traveling around Europe to see how beautiful, clean and efficient trains and platforms with working escalators function in other parts of the world, the MTA cries about lack of funds and raises fares where money disappears in a corrupt system. And the strap hangers put up with these endless insults over and over again........ It is a scandal!

Dianne
disgusted public transportation passenger

Years ago this was a problem and trash cans were placed to combat this problem. Trains had announcement reminding people to take their trash with them. These announcement need to continue reminding people to take their trash, people need to be fine when they throw trash in the subways, We need more MTA maintenance workers and yes keep the cans

Velma

It is the STUPIDEST most naive idea ever.

After a similar story about this in March, I saw a woman help her son pee in a corner at the Woodhaven station; so i have NO hope some - a lot of people will be too concerned about their coffee cops, gum wrappers or newspapers. :-(

Tom of Sunnyside

An incredibly stupid idea. I have seen trash cans at key stations OVERFLOWING with garbage everyday. People WANT to use the trash cans ----but the few that there are don't get serviced ENOUGH and as a result----The extra trash spills out EVERYWHERE. Most NYr's are diligent about not littering....but even I-----Find myself at times desperate to find a trash can ( and consider littering while in the subway). Which brings me to my next point -----This SEEMS like a cost-cutting measure...(less cans...less personnel to pick up trash....or a way to write more fines to generate revenue. New Yorkers DON''T want dirtynastysubways...But for all the money that the MTA Garners you would think that they would make trash collection a priority in the form of recycle bins, more trash cans, more frequent collections, clear trash cans, ---like the City Sanitation dept above ground! The MTA has spent so much money giving us great new subway cars ----but the other half is maintaining cleanliness---and that means --- MORE Trash CANS and MORE MAINTENANCE .

-BB

I think the mta should go ahead and remove trash cans in more stations and see how that goes. Riverside doesn't have trash cans and it manages to stay pretty clean.

ET

Great Adventure and Disney World have tremendous foot traffic and plenty of places that sell food, and yet they have no visible trash on the ground. Why? They have trash cans almost every five feet! Can you imagine how dirty those places would become if all their trash cans were removed? That's exactly what will happen if trash cans are removed from the subway system. You think it's bad now? It's about to get much, much worse!

Chris,
Lower East Side

Have the ready willing and able guys clean the subways they are already cleaning the streets. You can also have people on community service clean up.

Chris from Richmond Hill Queens.

Removing the trash bins wouldn't help. my train station has barely any trash, and I still see rodents on the platform.

Charli from Williamsburg

Great idea is to ask stores to reduce the amount of wrapping they use.

Food bans on public do work in places like San Fran and Hong Kong.

Paul UWCS

Simple: MORE garbage cans and FINES for littering . . .

getting rid of the cans -- beyond stupid!

Carmine, Lower East Side

When I heard MTA was going to eliminate the garbage cans at the #7 train station at Main St I was extremely upset. To my surprise the station is now almost spotless. We had at increase of cleaning crews and all they did was sit around and talk to each other or read newspapers! I think the main reason they want to eliminate the trash cans is to reduce their cleaning crew. For some strange reason it is working at Main st station!

Lee
Queens

There needs to be a law that outlaws food and drink on subways and platforms. Other cities do it, why not us. I'm sure we can all control ourselves and wait for our meals and snacks. Trash cans at the entrances to the subway should be placed with signs reminding people to dispose of their trash. If not observed, then fines should be instituted and enforced.

Irma

We need more optimistic good people like Rosemary willing to go after those mice and rats... Shame on the MTA for failing the citizens of this fine city. The cleanliness of the subway system has failed in every aspect. Where is the pride and drive in people to make things better? Its such a shame because the history of the NYC Transit system is amazing and I feel that management does not take accountability and does not care. Our NYC parks are gorgeous. Maybe the people at the MTA need to be taking lessons from the Parks Department on maintaining and cleaning a public facility?

James