Editorial standards

Information checked against NYC & DSNY sources · Last updated September 25, 2026

The promise

Cans.NYC has no position on whether NYC's containerization program is good or bad. Our job is to tell New Yorkers what is happening, what the rules actually say, what changed, and what they need to do about it.

How we verify

Every regulatory claim on this site - rules, deadlines, fines, enforcement dates, prices - is checked against primary sources: DSNY, NYC.gov, adopted rules, legislation, and official notices. Secondary reporting supplements primary sources; it never replaces them. Each guide carries a last verified date and links to its official sources.

Cans.NYC is designed to be easier to understand than NYC.gov. It is not a substitute for it. Official NYC and DSNY material remains the underlying source of truth.

Neutral, not timid

If a regulation creates an inconvenient consequence, we say so. If people who recently bought cans now need different cans, we explain it. If bins are hard to find, we report it when substantiated. If enforcement is delayed, we report that prominently - even when the development isn't commercially helpful to our sponsor. If DSNY fixes a problem, we report that too.

The sponsor relationship

Cans.NYC is an independent resource supported by Primo Cans, which sells address labels designed for NYC's garbage cans. The relationship is disclosed at the top of every page. Primo Cans appears where the product naturally solves a problem this site explains - not as interruptions, and never as a condition of accurate information. Sponsors do not review or approve editorial content.

Every page should pass one test

Would this information still deserve to exist if Primo Cans didn't sell anything? If the answer is no, we reconsider the page.

Corrections

When we get something wrong, we fix it visibly. See our corrections policy and log.