What to Know
- Mayor Eric Adams revealed on Wednesday a new plan to put trash in containers at 95% of residential properties throughout New York City
- Starting next fall, buildings with nine or fewer units will be required to place all trash in secure containers. By 2026, however, the container must be official bins approved by the city
- City leaders say these new residential rules, in addition to the ones regulating business trash, will have an estimated 70% of New York's trash going into bins
The city's efforts to rid the five boroughs of rats by containerizing sidewalk trash is expanding once again, and this time residential building owners are being brought into the fold.
Mayor Eric Adams revealed on Wednesday a new plan to put trash in containers at 95% of residential properties throughout New York City.
The hope is that this latest trash initiative will get trash bags off of city streets and reduce rat activity. City leaders say these new residential rules, in addition to the ones regulating business trash, will have an estimated 70% of New York's trash going into bins.
"Less than one year ago, Mayor Adams stood in front of City Hall and declared war on the rats, war on the bags and war on the idea that other cities could get their trash off of the streets but that New York City could not. Since then, we have made sweeping progress in ending the primacy of the black trash bags," DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday.
Starting next fall, buildings with nine or fewer units will be required to place all trash in secure containers. By 2026, however, the container must be official bins approved by the city.
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According to Tisch and Adams, the city is in the early stages of selecting a vendor to design and produce a bin for optimal "rat resistance" and will be compatible with DSNY trucks.
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"The uniform design of the new bins means that they can be tipped mechanically into the back of collection trucks, and DSNY will retrofit or replace hundreds of trucks to move past the days of throwing the bags by hand," Tisch explained.
The commissioner said the city-approved bins should last 10 years and will cost roughly $50, "far less than anything available in retail stores."
The new trash policy comes on the heels of last month's announcement by Adams: the use of mandatory hard-lidded trash bins for all businesses. That initiative will start March 2024, and businesses could face a $50 fine if caught in violation of the rules after an initial one-month grace period.
