Making waste management easier at West Brighton, NY

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Application:

Multifamily trash, recycling, and organics infrastructure

Product Solutions:

metroSTOR waste, recycling, and food organics enclosures with integrated cedar screening

Bringing West Brighton’s waste infrastructure up to the 21st century

Originally constructed in the 1960s, West Brighton is undergoing a $332.3 million PACT transformation covering 574 apartments across 16 residential buildings and serving more than 1,300 residents.

The wider program includes improvements to homes, building systems, landscaping, public spaces, and community facilities. It is also bringing 12 vacant apartments back into use as permanently affordable homes, with additional affordable housing planned for the site in a future phase.

Waste infrastructure formed an important part of the renewal program. The aim was not simply to provide containers, but to create a disposal system that would comply with NYC Sanitation code requirements while ensuring that residents could reach, understand, and use it easily.

That distinction matters in large multifamily communities. When disposal points are inaccessible, or difficult to use, residents are more likely to leave material outside the designated area or place it in the wrong stream. This results in lower diversion, illegal dumping and exposed waste that attracts vermin.

Applying lessons learned from other NYCHA communities

OCV Arch itects developed the West Brighton design drawing on system-design principles proven on other NYCH A sites: make disposal points accessible, keep the deposit process simple, and provide enough capacity for the way the community actually generates waste.

Accessibility was therefore treated as a core operational requirement rather than a compliance exercise. Residents, including people with limited mobility, needed to be able to approach and use collection points comfortably within easy reach of each building, while the layout also had to support straightforward servicing.

Clear separation between trash, recycling, and food scraps was equally important. By giving each material stream a defined and easy-to-use destination, the system is designed to make correct disposal more intuitive and support stronger waste diversion over time.

Maximizing capacity within ADA constraints

The available footprint had to accommodate sufficient capacity for three separate waste streams without compromising ADA compliance.

metroSTOR assisted the project team in configuring the enclosures around accessible routes, usable deposit heights, circulation space, and the practical requirements of collection crews. This helped maximize the number of containers that could be accommodated while keeping the system approachable for residents.

The resulting layout provides a more structured alternative to exposed carts or loosely organized refuse areas. Residents can identify where each material belongs, reach the appropriate deposit point, and dispose of it without navigating unnecessary physical barriers.

Making that process easier is fundamental to system performance. A waste system can only support diversion when residents are able and willing to use it consistently.

Better containment guarantees a cleaner site

The robust enclosures secure the collection carts within a purpose-designed structure for trash, recycling, and food scraps.

This containment is intended to reduce opportunities for bags and bulky waste to be left around the collection area, while limiting access to the contents after deposit. Keeping food waste and other materials enclosed also supports better vermin control than open or easily accessed containers.

These features work together. Convenient resident access helps encourage use of the designated collection points, while secure containment helps prevent waste from becoming accessible once it has been deposited.

Incorporating cedar screening

The landscape design called for cedar screening around the refuse areas. Rather than constructing separate screens around standard waste containers, the cedar elements were incorporated directly into the metroSTOR enclosure fabric.

This allowed a single structure to provide the security, accessibility, capacity, and appearance required by the project, while minimizing spaces for litter to collect.

Integrating the screening also avoided the cost and complexity of a separate package while complementing the wider landscape design.

Supporting a broader renewal of the community

The waste system sits within a much larger program to improve everyday life at West Brighton.

Alongside the refurbishment of the existing apartments, the project is restoring previously vacant homes, upgrading shared spaces, and preparing the site for further affordable housing. In that context, accessible and well-integrated waste infrastructure is part of creating a residential environment that is easier to use, cleaner, and more reliable over the long term.

Looking at waste and recycling infrastructure across your housing portfolio?

We work with housing providers and public agencies to design infrastructure that improves cleanliness, reduces recurring waste problems, and supports more manageable long-term performance across shared residential environments.

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