Downtown Raleigh gets big, black trash bins. Why the city’s trying again.
New deep, waist-high trash bins debuted in downtown Raleigh last week, aimed at taking smelly, rolling carts off sidewalks.
The city installed two 522.5-gallon TRAC (Trash Recycling and Cardboard) bins on East Martin Street between Wilmington and Blount street: one for loose recyclables, the other for flattened cardboard.
They are part of a pilot program to eventually help rid downtown of the 95-gallon rolling trash carts used by businesses. The first two black, circular bins will be used exclusively by Ashley Christensen’s businesses, including Beasley’s and Fox Liquor Bar.
“Our restaurants are honored to participate in this exciting pilot program,” Christensen, owner of AC Restaurants, said in a city news release. “I am confident that this initiative will result in a more visually pleasing and collaborative collection solution for downtown businesses.”
Staff at the restaurants have been trained to unlock and use the bins. Solid Waste Services staff also have access and will study how much recycled waste is collected each week.
The two bins are located in converted parking spaces so they do not take up room on the sidewalks. They are surrounded by short walls covered in images of flowers, birds and recyclable materials by local artist Max Dowdie.
The city notified businesses within a block of where the bins were going and, with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, held an information session for the bins’ neighbors.
Didn’t Raleigh try something like this before
Yes. A 2018 city survey about downtown cleanliness listed the rolling, solid-waste bins as a top complaint..
In 2019, the city tried a short-lived pilot program, installing Molok bins at Hargett and Wilmington streets.
The bins went in near the M&F Bank, the second oldest Black-owned bank in the United States, but customers and chief executive officer James Sill said they smelled and were an eyesore.
The city apologized for not properly notifying nearby property owners beforehand, and the bins, which were the first of their kind in the United States, were removed.
