Public waste receptacles in Harlem were overflowing, so what did the city do? It trashed the trash cans.

The city Department of Sanitation removed 223 street-corner waste containers from the neighborhood and others around the city to supposedly curb littering, the New York Times reports.

But Harlem residents and neighborhood advocates say their street corners are already turning into dumping grounds as people continue to toss trash where the cans used to be.

“It’s a very big problem. It’s not just an eyesore — it’s a health issue that negatively impacts the people who live and work in this community,” said local state Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, who says her office has fielded more than 150 complaints about the disappearing bins.

Now, errant rubbish no longer contained by litter baskets blows around streets and lands in front of homes and businesses — which lands property owners in hot water with the city.

“Every day, they’re getting violations, and yet there are no trash cans,” Dickens said of homeowners and shopkeepers in her district. “We know the city has to raise revenue, but not on the backs of residents and small-business owners.”

The can-don’t attitude is part of a larger push by Sanitation to rein in litterbugs who illegally drop their household trash in public bins, city officials said. This year alone, 1,131 waste receptacles have been plucked up off city streets, the Times reported.

The MTA tried a similar gambit in 2012 but ultimately scrapped the plan after the state comptroller reported that the counterintuitive move had the highly intuitive result of leading to more garbage in subways.

Still, reps from the Sanitation Department say the plan has worked for them.

“It seems counterintuitive, but it has been very effective,” said Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. “We’re just not seeing the same amount of litter and trash on those corners.”

Similar measures in Ridgewood, Queens, were a slam dunk, according to community board member Paul Kerzner, who previously convinced the city to remove 63 of the neighborhood’s 67 bins.

“Every single one of them was abused — they were all overflowing,” he said. Now the street is “immaculate.”

But the city has already reinstated five baskets in Harlem following pushback from residents there.

“We will continue to monitor the new baskets for improper disposal, and they may be again removed should problems reoccur,” officials said in a statement.