The next phase of New York City's war on rats kicks off a new trash initiative this week.
After appointing a rat czar in April, Mayor Eric Adams announced his next target: trash from food-related businesses. Restaurants, supermarkets and bodegas will now be required to use containers for their trash in an effort to combat New York City's rat problem.
Adams finalized a rule mandating that all food related businesses put their trash in secure containers. The administration detailed plans to expand the requirements for containerization to all chain businesses with five or more locations in the city.
"Today, we take giant steps towards [the goal of clean streets] by announcing new rules to containerize trash in our city that, once finalized, will cover 25 percent of businesses and result in 4 million pounds of trash getting disposed of in secure bins each day," Adams said last month.
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This new plan would affect bodegas, delis and grocery stores too. This rule will go into affect August 1, 2023.
Department of Sanitation Commissioner Tisch, in the announcement, noted that the black bags outside food-related businesses basically serve as "a to-go box" for rats. Deputy Mayor for Operations Meer Joshi hoped that the rule would be another step towards the end of "trash-bag mountains."
“No one wants to see it, no one wants to smell it and we certainly don’t want rats to eat it," Tisch said.
Under these two rules, businesses will have flexibility on the type and location of containers, provided they have a lid and secure sides. Containers can be stored either inside of the establishment or within three feet of the property line.
NYC Mayor Adams
Some restaurant owners hearing the news had concerns.
“Some of the restaurants have a lot of garbage. It’s at least seven containers they’re gonna be using," said Basudeb Shaha, owner of Bombay Grill House on 9th Avenue.
Shaha says it will be difficult for some to store the bins when not in use, and the New York City hospitality alliance agrees.
Following the announcement, the alliance said it supports “containerizing trash, but as initially proposed, the Department of Sanitation’s mandate is impractical and creates big problems for small restaurants that will have to store big dirty garbage cans in their food preparation and customer seating areas or leave thousands of trash containers permanently strewn on sidewalks across the city."
Still, the owner is willing to give the plan a shot, saying if it keeps rats at bay, it's a good thing.
“This is a good idea because sometimes you put the plastic bag outside, mouse coming … this is nasty, I don’t like that way. This is a good idea," Shaha said.
