Here are NYC's worst litterers — the generation, gender may not surprise you

New York Post

12-05-2025

Gen Z men are leaving their mark on the city — and leaving their trash.
The city's worst litterers are men from the Bronx and Queens between the ages of 18-34 — even though the litterbugs claim immense pride in their home city, a new survey found.
The age group — which also includes some litterbugs of the Millennial generation — admitted their messy ways and were dubbed 'chronic litterers' in a survey by the Sanitation Foundation shared with The Post.
6 Young men from the Bronx and Queens are the most chronic litterers, according to a new survey.
Stefano Giovannini
Their excuse: there wasn't a trash can close enough or they were in too much of a hurry, the survey said.
Even though they admitted they were contributing too the problem, those same litterers view their fellow trash tossers as 'lazy' and claim they're the ones who give the Big Apple a bad reputation.
Roughly eight in 10 New Yorkers believe the city has a trash problem — but 38% of people admit to tossing their garbage in the street every once in a while, the survey said.
Only 29% claim they have 'never littered' before, according to the results.
6 Most New Yorkers agree that the city has a huge littering problem.
Stefano Giovannini
Women 45 and above were least likely to say they were litterbugs.
Nearly 85% of everyone surveyed — both litterers and not — said they were proud to be New Yorkers.
'It's depressing,' said Anthony, a Queens resident in his 80s who has to clean up other people's litter from his own Whitestone property between two and four times a week.
'I pay high taxes and it's sort of disappointing. It gets you upset also to see that nobody does nothing about it.'
6 Brooklyn has racked up the most 311 complaints for littering and garbage over the last 17 months.
Stefano Giovannini
Brooklyn has the most litter and trash complaints of all five boroughs, notching over 30,000 complaints with 311 since January 2024.
Queens followed closely behind with 20,900 complaints, while Manhattan — sometimes maligned as the borough most plagued by litter — had 17,000.
The Bronx racked up 13,200 complaints in the past 17 months while Staten Island had just 6,700.
6 Chronic litterers say they tossed trash in the street because there wasn't a bin nearby.
Stefano Giovannini
6 New Yorkers believe more trash bins, especially in the outer boroughs, would help quell the trash problem.
Stefano Giovannini
Carlos Amaya of Astoria theorized that some participants were fudging the truth — as a 32-year-old, Amaya said he and other people his age are anti-litter and routinely clean up trash they spot on the street.
One thing he does agree with, however, is that Queens is turning into a trash heap
'There's trash everywhere — everywhere!' Amaya said, pointing to Corona as the worst neighborhood he's seen.
Amaya is in the process of moving to a home in Northpoint, Long Island, to escape the issues he put up with over the last seven years.
6 Carlos Amaya is ditching Queens for Long Island after getting sick of dealing with litter and loud neighbors.
Stefano Giovannini
'I don't like Queens for all these reasons: the littering, people around screaming and shouting, loud speakers. I don't want my kid to grow up like that,' Amaya said, adding that he'll be commuting an hour and a half to Flushing each day, a sacrifice he's willing to make for a cleaner life.
The Big Apple's trash problem has been one Mayor Eric Adams has been fighting to solve, with City Hall announcing last week it would boost the Sanitation Department's funding by $32 million to help clean the streets and would expand the amount of city workers cleaning city parks during evenings and weekends.
The Sanitation Foundation, which works in conjunction with DSNY, is launching Monday the Don't Do NYC Dirty campaign, to push New Yorkers to pick up after themselves.
'The Don't Do New York City Dirty campaign taps into what makes this city great—our fierce pride as New Yorkers. There's a real disconnect when 83% of us say we love New York, yet nearly 4 in 10 admit to littering,' the Sanitation Foundation told The Post.
'By encouraging each other to show respect for New York by 'trashing your trash,' we're turning that pride into action. From sidewalks to stoops, street corners to crosswalks, when each of us steps up, the difference is visible and powerful. Our love for New York should be reflected in how we care for it – starting with keeping it clean.'