Trash-collecting artist rakes in $100K after years of selling cubes of garbage: living character of NYC

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.Justin Gignac has spent more than two decades collecting trash off the streets of the Big Apple, packaging it in small, clear cubes and selling them for up to $100 a pop.New York City Garbage — not to be confused with the city’s Sanitation Department — is a long-term art project that Gignac says chronicles and captures “an actual piece of the city.”“In New York, we’re famous for our garbage.It’s like a living character of the city.

And I think being a bit notorious for being a filthy city really helps,” the artist, 46, told The Post.“The brand of New York City here is a really big one.

Instead of shying away from maybe what would be looked down upon — that we have so much trash everywhere — we embrace that.It’s just a part of being in New York.”Gignac, of Forest Hills, recently enjoyed a moment of virality for plucking rubbish from outside Taylor Swift’s Madison Square Garden wedding — including a discarded ovulation test kit.But the sold-out “Not Invited Edition (Taylor & Travis’ Wedding)” trash drop is just the latest in dozens Gignac has released since he first started collecting garbage back in 2001.The gig started out as a gag — one designed to spite an old marketing co-worker who claimed package design wasn’t important, a declaration Gignac called “crazy.”The budding trash man snagged a Heineken can, slices of caution tape and bits of newspaper off the streets of Times Square, shoved it into a clear cube and slapped the date on it — and successfully sold it to a stranger.The cubes have evolved over the years to focus on composition — like one cube in which a Sonny Angel gingerly dangled on the rim of a Greek coffee cup.Gignac has also pivoted on “drops” throughout the years that capture moments in time, like Swift’s wedding or the 2026 World Cup tournament or back in 2011 when same-sex marriage was legalized in the Big Apple.“I went down to the city c...