Community leaders were tired of households using corner trash baskets meant for candy wrappers and soda cans to dump plastic bags full of smelly leftovers and other personal discards. It is illegal to dump household garbage in corner litter baskets, and violators can be fined $100, though stopping scofflaws is not easy.

No one seems to have complained much about such violations until two years ago, when litter collection in Bay Ridge was effectively reduced from twice a day to something closer to twice a week because garbage trucks were diverted to dirtier parts of the city, said Josephine Beckmann, district manager of the local community board.