Downtown Raleigh gets big, black trash bins. Why the city’s trying again.
New deep, high-capacity trash bins are aimed at taking smelly, rolling carts off downtown Raleigh sidewalks.
Raleigh installed two 522.5-gallon TRAC (Trash Recycling and Cardboard) bins on East Martin Street between Wilmington and Blount street last week: one for loose recyclables and the other for flattened cardboard.
They are part of a pilot program to eventually help rid downtown Raleigh’s streets of the 95-gallon rolling trash carts used by businesses. The waist-high, black bins will be first 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 new bins. Solid Waste Services staff also have access to them and will evaluate how much recycled waste is collected each week.
The two bins are located in converted parking spaces so that they do not take up room on the sidewalks. They are covered in artwork featuring flowers, birds and recyclable materials, by local artist Max Dowdle.
The city notified businesses within a block of the new bins were notified about them, and the city and Downtown Raleigh Alliance, held an information session for those nearby businesses.
A 2018 city survey about downtown cleanliness listed the rolling solid waste bins as the top issue.
In 2019, the city tried a short-lived pilot program, installing Molok bins at Hargett and Wilmington streets.
Those bins were installed 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 about the bins, which were the first of their kind in the United States before they were removed.
