Soon, there will no longer be piles of trash bags on Brooklyn streets. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced more than 700 of large containers will be installed around the borough to store the trash for pickup, as the city looks to continue addressing its rat problem. NBC New York's Erica Byfield reports.

A major change is coming to the way trash is collected in parts of Brooklyn.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced early Thursday the installation of the borough's first residential Empire bins in Brooklyn Community District 2 has started.

More than 700 of the large containers will replace piles of trash bags in neighborhoods, including Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo and Fort Greene.

Sanitation workers will add them in front of buildings with more than 30 units, as those the opt into the program. City wide businesses and low-density residential buildings like single-family homes already have a containerization requirement.

"What you won’t see any more bags piling up week after week leaking oozing and smelling," said Sanitation Department Commissioner Gregory Anderson.

City officials said the bins will help cut down on rats, keep sidewalks cleaner and make trash collection more efficient.

"The effects that these contrariness will have on our city will be nothing short of transformative," said Mamdani, while acknowledging the bins will mean less street parking.

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The city plans to expand the program to six more community districts next year, with a goal of bringing containerized trash collection citywide by 2031. It comes on the heels of a pilot program in West Harlem.