Most of New York City’s trash is put out on the streets, where it’s hauled away by hulking garbage trucks that can weigh more than 25 tons fully loaded.

But in leafy Forest Hills Gardens, things are different. The secluded corner of Queens enjoys an amenity familiar to residents of other cities, but alien to New York: alleyways.

The city sanitation department relies on a fleet of small garbage trucks that dash through the neighborhood’s alleys, picking up trash from a tiny fraction of New Yorkers who put their trash bins out behind their homes — instead of in front of them.