The mayor’s “Dumpster-free Alley” proposal would begin next spring in the downtown business core and later be expanded to neighborhoods such as south Lake Union, the University District, lower Queen Anne and Fremont.

The program is based on a voluntary effort over the past six years in Pioneer Square, just south of downtown, where restaurants and other businesses pay for “Dumpster-free” service by CleanScapes Inc., a Seattle-based garbage hauling company that also has offices in San Francisco and Portland. Rather than using trash bins, plastic bags color-coded for garbage and recyclables are left for pickup.

Business operators will likely be favorably disposed, “depending on how much it costs and the logistics of pickup and how convenient or inconvenient it would be,” said David Dillman, operations vice president of the Downtown Seattle Association.

“Overall, I think the downtown community would be supportive because you would have open, clear alleyways. People would be able to see up and down, and people wouldn’t be able to hide behind them (trash bins) to do illegal activity,” Dillman said.

Police Lt. James M. Fitzgerald, who oversees operations in the West Precinct, also took a favorable view.

“Anecdotally, it does help an officer in a patrol car. Officers have a greater visual capability in checking out things without having to go down alleys and get out of cars,” Fitzgerald said. “And from a public perspective, it looks safer. They can see what they’re walking into.”

Nickels’ proposal to the City Council is part of a package that includes increases in residential garbage and other utility rates next year.

Concerns include higher costs – as proposed, $5 a bag, more than the trash bin collection rate – as well as the mess if animals tear the bags open, and the need for more frequent pickup.

Chris Martin, CleanScapes president and founder, said using bags is more efficient because trucks don’t waste time maneuvering to hoist and empty a trash bin. He also noted that New York and some other cities don’t use trash bins.

The rap sheet on garbage bins runs from being a magnet for drug dealers and prostitutes who hide behind them to attracting graffiti and serving as toilets.

Police say burglars sometimes climb on them to reach fire escapes, and they can be hiding places for crooks.

To Spencer Smissaert, who empties trash from an Old Navy store, they just stink.

It’s bad enough that he often sees people huddled behind them smoking crack cocaine, but transients often leave urine and feces when they use the dingy metal bins as shelter in the winter.

“Sometimes you open the lid and it will be in there,” Smissaert said.