Up to 100 locking-lid, wheeled refuse carts were distributed to Chinatown businesses and residents last week in preparation for a modified manual trash collection service that starts Monday.

Chinatown trash has been an ongoing problem for the city’s Department of Environmental Services. Despite the pleas of city officials, people have continued to litter the neighborhood’s sidewalks with open, unbagged and often unsightly trash. Even six-days-a-week collections hasn’t eliminated the problem.

The new pilot project will replace an initiative that Mayor Kirk Caldwell unveiled at a press conference in September involving larger, thicker, officially marked yellow bags that businesses and landowners initially obtained for free but were later expected to purchase.

“While this program worked better than the previous process of merchants stacking their opala on the curbside, the locking carts are an attempt at further improvement,” Caldwell said in a news release issued Friday.

City officials said they expect the locking lids to be able to contain trash better and reduce the potential for scavenging, scattering and leaking onto sidewalks.

Equipment was installed in the rear of each of Chinatown’s manual refuse trucks to allow crews to load the carts and turn on a switch to tip them so the lids open and the contents is dumped into the truck.

Trash generated by businesses and residents must fit into the carts. Refuse trucks will not collect other trash, including garbage that is bagged, city officials said.

The carts must be placed inside businesses or an authorized common space when not out for collection.

The news release did not say how much the city spent to purchase the new carts or to retrofit the Chinatown trucks.