State bill outlaws most clothing bins

From the Queens Chronicle:

A state bill aimed at eliminating clothing collection bins from fake charities and introduced by Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) has been passed by both houses of the Legislature.

The measure, which prohibits placing bins on public property, goes a step further than city law by forcing the owners to disclose whether they are operated by a nonprofit group or a for-profit business.

In addition, the owner must reveal whether a bin is operated by a for-profit business partnering with a nonprofit group, a practice known as rent-a-charity.

The owners are subject to fines of up $500 for violations and must meet maintenance requirements.

Be grateful you don't live next to this

Hi Crappie,

A couple weeks ago, one of my neighbors here in Elmhurst decided to decorate his lawn with one of those illegal garbage bins. I guess this is legal because the bin is on private property, so Sanitation cannot remove it (?!- I have reported it to 311, to no avail).

To make matters worse, this neighbor is a slob to begin with (see the attached photo of his front lawn on a given day). The bin is ALWAYS overflowing, even though he claims that the company picks up clothing regularly. Ugh!

Signed,
OGCLE

Council hopes to speed up bin removal process

From Capital New York:

The owners of clothing collection bins will have to comply with new rules or face fines and removal of their containers if a bill the sanitation committee passed Wednesday morning is approved by the full Council.

Owners of the bins—which generally contain discarded clothing, shoes and other textiles—will have to place their names and physical addresses on each container and will be forbidden from placing the bins on city property, roadways and sidewalks or any private property without the written consent of property owners.

The sanitation department will remove any illegal bins and owners will be charged a $50 fine for the first offense and a $100 fine for each violation thereafter.

The bill has close to 30 bipartisan sponsors, including Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. It will be voted on by the full Council on Thursday.

City Council may actually do something useful next month

From the NY Post:

A City Council public hearing on a measure that would make it easier for the city to seize the eyesores and fine the operators is scheduled for Sept. 8.

Used-clothing collection bins are banned on city property, including public sidewalks and roads. Bins placed in parking lots and on private property with the permission of the property owner are legal.

The illegal bins are installed in the dead of night, officials say. And even when sanitation inspectors quickly tag them, the bins’ owners take advantage of regulations giving them 30 days to haul them away.

They remove them on the 29th day and usually set them up around the corner.

City Council members want to stop the clothing-bin carousel, with a bill that would allow the Sanitation Department to remove illegal boxes immediately.

The measure would also create a registry of legal bins and require bin operators to quantify their collections by weight. The bin owners could be fined if they fail to comply with the new rules.

Council legislation introduced to get rid of those bins

From Brooklyn Magazine:

On July 24, Councilman Gentile, who represents Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, brought Bill Int 0409-2014 before the City Council for consideration, reports the Bay Ridge Journal. The bill calls for not only the immediate removal of the bins from city property, but also adds a $250 fine for first-time offenders of the would-be law and a $500 fine for repeat offenders.

As it stands, the Department of Sanitation can’t take immediate action. First, the DOS must paste a label on the bins warning the owners to remove them and then 30 days after that the DOS can physically remove the bin. Bill Int 0409-2014 would do away with that 30-day waiting period if the bin’s owner fails to include their contact information on the pink monstrosities.

Braunstein to introduce clothing box legislation...in January

From WPIX:

They’re popping up all over the city, even though they’re illegal and appear to be a scam. One legislator, however, has vowed to eliminate clothing drop boxes, or at least make it much more difficult for the large, metal, cube shaped receptacles to be left on sidewalks in New York’s five boroughs and around the state. For many New Yorkers, the new regulations can’t come soon enough.

The announcement by Assemblyman Edward Braunstein about a new bill in to more quickly remove the clothing bins was made in front of Lawrence Cemetery in Bayside, Queens. The quarter acre burial ground is named after the Lawrence Family, which settled in Queens in 1644. Now, however, settled right next to the historic cemetery’s fence, is a bright pink, metal clothing drop box.

Under the bill being introduced by Braunstein, a Bayside Democrat, the illegally placed clothing boxes would be treated more like illegally parked cars — where big action is taken, fast. In the case of the boxes, they’d be confiscated after just a few days of citation.

However, there’s one caveat. “[The legislature is] off session in Albany, but I’ll introduce the bill as soon as we get back in January,” Braunstein told PIX11 News.

Bins, be gone!

"Just chiming in regarding these clothing bins. These are in Ridgewood on a public street (St. Nicholas between Gates and Palmetto). I've submitted the forms to have them removed but I've not gotten any follow up or notification from sanitation. There really needs to be some new legislation around these." - Wiley

Well guess who now chairs the Council's Sanitation Committee? None other than Antonio Reynoso, the council member for half of Ridgewood.

I'm sure he'll get right on this.

Phony charities behind most clothing bins

From the NY Times:

A growing number of companies — many of them based in New Jersey — are illegally placing used-clothing bins throughout New York City, blocking sidewalks and serving as magnets for litter and graffiti. The receptacles typically have signs that indicate donated goods will go to the poor or, in some cases, to legitimate charities. But, city officials said, the needy do not benefit from much of what is collected. Instead, the clothing is often sold in thrift stores or in bulk oveseas, with the proceeds going to for-profit entities that can be impossible to trace, or even to contact.

City law bans such bins from being placed on sidewalks and streets; they are legal on private property with the consent of the owner. Once found by Sanitation Department enforcement officers or reported by residents to the city’s 311 help line, an illegal bin is tagged and the owner has 30 days to remove it. Summonses are not issued, a department spokeswoman explained, based on the theory that those distributing the bins have factored any fines into the cost of doing business.

Statistics confirm what a trip through many neighborhoods shows. In the fiscal year 2010, the city tagged 91 bins and confiscated 10. In the fiscal year 2014, which ended June 30, more than 2,006 bins were tagged and 132 were confiscated.

A similar pattern has emerged nationally, according to officials at leading charities. They are alarmed by the misleading competition, which, they maintain, is undermining their own efforts.

Illegal clothing boxes are out-of-control

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

It is just one quality of life issue after another here in our community and we certainly do not need another one, like the recent “Attack of the Clothing Bins”. It seems that recently so many of the color of the rainbow clothing bins are appearing on sidewalk all over Jamaica, residential sidewalks, in LIRR Tunnel, in front of vacant lots, so many places that don’t even seem to make sense to begin with.

Besides these ugly bins being major eyesores, they are being placed illegally on our sidewalks, they end up having graffiti and posters all over them and garbage gets dumped on the sides of them. The biggest issue, none of the clothing in these bins are going to charity. The majority of them are being resold. So not only is this a major scam, but our communities are becoming yet another example of people sh*tting all over us because they know they can get away with it.

How to get illegal clothing bins removed

From Clean Up Jamaica Queens:
If you are very observant like I am, you will have noticed a huge amount of various donation clothing bins in various colors (black, green, pink, etc) all over the community, some in front of apartment building, some in the middle of sidewalks and some in parking lots of business.
The Goodwill bins are actually going toward the charity Goodwill and more than likely are put there legally. Most of the others (pink, black, green, blue) are placed illegally without approval. With the exception of the Goodwill bins, the clothing from these bins are actually sold, not given to charity, so you might want to think before you put clothing in these bins.
These bins are becoming a major eyesore not only in the Jamaica community, but all over NYC and our people in charge are not doing a damn thing about this latest quality of life issue. Besides being eyesores and sometimes blocking sidewalks, they tend to have graffiti and stickers placed all over them and many have garbage dumped on the sides of them.
Until recently, the only way to have these removed were to print out a form from the Department of Sanitation's website and mail in in. Well, now you can just fill-out the form on-line and submit it. You can find the link here.