The MTA gave a progress report on its controversial program to remove trash cans from nearly 40 subway stations, and the results might not be what some subway riders want to hear. NY1's Jose Martinez filed the following report.

Stripping 39 subway stations of garbage cans is an idea New Yorkers love to trash.

"You see a lot of people walking around with garbage in their hands," said one man NY1 spoke with. "They'll put it somewhere, in the corner of the train car or just throw it off the train tracks."

But the MTA said Thursday that the pilot program is working - that after removing trash cans at stops like Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn, the stations actually are cleaner.

"The public is still somewhat skeptical, and understandably so," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz. "Again, it's counterintuitive. How can this possibly work where you remove trash cans but you're seeing less garbage at stations?"

The program began at two stations in 2011, added eight more a year later, and then last summer, the garbage bins were removed from another 29 stations, this time along the J/M/Z lines in Brooklyn and Queens.

The goal was to reduce the number of rats in the subway. The rodents are attracted by the trash bags emptied from the bins and left on platforms and in trash rooms.

As the MTA hoped, most passengers at affected stations are cleaning up their act by taking their trash with them.

"When you see a total number of trash bags picked up, it's less than 66 percent of what we originally did," Ortiz said. "I think the numbers speak for themselves."

"It definitely does minimize the rat problem," one man said. "Because the garbage will overflow, will attract rats. No garbage can, no overflowed garbage."

But without trash bins, some sloppy straphangers are simply getting creative, wedging trash into the crevices of support beams. Other littlerbugs are more blatant.

"They leave it on the train, they leave it on the tracks, they leave it on the chairs," said one woman. "Where they going to put it in?"

Transit officials said there's been only a slight uptick in how much trash ends up on the tracks.

With fewer trash bags to pick up, the MTA said it's been able to redeploy station workers to other tasks. But there is still plenty for the rats to feast on. Forty tons of trash are still hauled out of the transit system every day.