New York City will take another step this fall in its war on rats and sidewalk trash, as residents can expect to see less bags and more bins on the streets.
"Welcome to our trash revolution," said Mayor Eric Adams at a press conference Monday.
Starting Nov. 12, buildings with one to nine housing units will have to put household trash for pickup in large plastic containers — which are said to be rat-proof. The city is selling the bins to property owners for $50 each.
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"This means 70% of all trash in the city will be covered by container requirements," NYC Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Larger buildings will join the container trend in Spring 2025, as the city gets ready to roll out new garbage trucks that will empty sidewalk bins setup for larger structures. The program, which the city has said will also cut down on workplace injuries among sanitation workers, is modeled after Europeans cities like Barcelona.
"We are only catching up with what municipalities across the globe are doing," Adams said.
The new policies aimed at cutting down on the piles of curbside garbage bags will follow rules recently put into place for commercial properties and businesses. Since March, all 200,000 businesses in the Big Apple have been required to put out their bags of trash in garbage bins, as communities across the county and world have long done.
Just under a year ago, in Aug. 2023, started requiring restaurants, convenience stores and bars to use a sturdy trash can with a secure lid and extended the requirement to chain stores the following month.
Commercial trash makes up nearly half of the some 44 million pounds of refuse collected by the city each day, according to Adams, who has made combating the city’s rodents a focus.
As for enforcement, city officials said there will be a grace period when the program gets underway in November — but eventually there will be $50 fines for each violation.
