Exclusive | NYC landlord sues sanitation department over trash-placement fines because theres nowhere to put it

A clash over trash is playing out in Tribeca — where plenty of small buildings have no choice but to set out their garbage in plastic bags rather than bulky bins.In such small buildings, there is simply no space for the sanitation department’s required bins, which consume far more space than bags alone. Regardless, late last year the sanitation department slapped landlord Robert Moskowitz with three “receptacle violation” tickets — for using garbage bags rather than the requisite “rigid receptacles with tight fitting lids.”   Moskowitz paid $150 for those three counts of “failure to containerize.” His efforts to fight the tickets failed, and he is now suing the city’s sanitation department, DSNY.It is both “physically and legally impossible to comply” with the bin requirement, wrote his lawyer, Nicole Waknine, in papers filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court.“We have no objection to the use of trash cans,” she told The Post.“Our issue is a practical one.

The goal is to push the city to implement a waiver program for building owners who have tried in good faith to comply and truly can’t comply.” With no yard or storage space, there is simply no place to put the bins, except for a building’s entryway, where people would need to shimmy past.Even if there were space, the fire code prohibits the storage of rubbish in lobbies. Nor is there space for another allowed option, a fenced-in storage area within 3 feet of the building, which would block the doors. Moskowitz — whose company, Only Properties, owns about a dozen small downtown buildings — was issued tickets for three historic Tribeca properties.

All are small walkups, with lofty rental residences atop narrow ground-floor commercial spaces, and open directly onto the sidewalk. Large buildings and massive skyscrapers are in a very different situation, with plenty of space and resources to handle garbage, Moskowitz said in a statement to The Post.“The law places a...