The Queens neighborhood where alleyways and tiny trash trucks keep garbage out of sight

Most of New York City’s trash is put out on the streets, where it’s hauled away by hulking garbage trucks that can weigh more than 25 tons fully loaded.

But in leafy Forest Hills Gardens, things are different. The secluded corner of Queens enjoys an amenity familiar to residents of other cities, but alien to New York: alleyways.

The city sanitation department relies on a fleet of small garbage trucks that dash through the neighborhood’s alleys, picking up trash from a tiny fraction of New Yorkers who put their trash bins out behind their homes — instead of in front of them.

While cities like Chicago were designed with alleys to keep trash collection out of view of the general public, New York’s grid plan prioritized density over back-door service. Just 65 of the city’s roughly 2,000 garbage trucks are small enough to fit in alleys. Outside of Forest Hills, they can also be found operating in parts of Crown Heights and Maspeth.

Officials say only about 300 of the city’s roughly 120,000 blocks have alleys serviced by the sanitation department's miniature trucks.

Forest Hills Gardens resident Matt Iannuzzi said there’s a whole neighborhood culture around the alleyways.

“ The neighbors get to know each other probably more in the alley sometimes than out in front of the house,” he said. “ That's where their barbecues are, and yeah, and all their kids play in the backyards.”

Iannuzzi said drivers in the neighborhood need to be sure not to park their cars behind their homes on collection days to avoid jamming up the truck.

“They could come out of the back door of their house and go right to their backyard, but when you have a collection behind the home, you can't really do that,” he said. “So there is a consideration. You don't wanna block the truck in, obviously.”

On Thursday, Iannuzzi’s neighbor Max Nevins watched one of the 10-ton alley trucks squeezing behind rowhomes near a set of Long Island Rail Road tracks. The alleyway garbage trucks might be tiny, but Nevins said it still takes a skilled driver to navigate the narrow spaces. One of the truck’s paint jobs was faded from repeatedly scraping against the area’s tree branches.

“They do take down the power lines every now and then,” he said.

Sanitation department spokesperson Joshua Goodman said that alleyway service is a niche program the department does not plan to expand.

“It presents significant challenges during snowstorms, when cars are double-parked in alleys, or with low-hanging wires,” he said.

Alleyway collection was suspended during the recent snowstorms, forcing residents to schlep their waste to the curb like everyone else.

“My neighbor got really pissed because our garbage piled up,” Nevins said.

In 2019, alleyway-enjoying residents of Bay Ridge sued the sanitation department after the agency tried to end their alleyway service. A judge ruled in their favor, and the back door collections continued.

Goodman said there’s no method to opt in to alleyway collection. He encouraged residents who currently have the service to consider asking the sanitation department to take it away.

“Blocks that want to ensure they receive the most reliable and consistent level of service by ceasing alley service and moving to curbside collection [like the rest of the city] can let us know any time via their community board,” Goodman said.

The mini trucks only collect garbage – residents must still set their compost and recycling at the curb for collection by regular trucks.

Rachel Borut, a real estate broker who has lived in Forest Hills for 20 years, said she’s grateful to have the alleyway garbage pickup because it keeps the other streets cleaner.

“It's what makes our city so unique,” she said. I mean, we have all these little pockets of, you know, coolness.”

“I feel like we have a relationship with the people that pick up the garbage,” Borut said. “I’m very grateful.  I hope they don't take the trucks away.”