Rats!
The number of rodent sightings across the five boroughs continues to plummet as New York City officials unwrapped new garbage securing measures that will affect tens of thousands of businesses.
So far this month, rat complaints to 311 were down 26% compared to last June, thanks to recent rules that ban businesses and homeowners from putting out trash before 8 p.m., Mayor Adams and Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The second phase of the city’s garbage reform measures begins in August, when restaurants, grocery stores, delis and bodegas will be required to use storage containers for their refuse.
The rules will also apply to non-food service chain stores with more than five locations in the boroughs, “essentially closing down the all-you-can eat rat buffet that has plagued our city for too long,” Tisch said.
Mayor Adams brought a prop to his garbage reform press conference Wednesday. NYC Mayor's Office
Beginning in August, all city businesses that serve food or have five or more chains in the boroughs will need to put out their garbage in containers, not bags, officials said. Helayne Seidman“As I say over and over again I hate rats… and rats love garbage bags,” said Adams. “And we can not coexist.”
The Democrat predicted that the new rules will have a “transformative effect on our city and will eliminate the mountains of food waste piled up in bags on our sidewalks,” adding that he hoped to make New York the cleanest big city in the US.
Sanitation officials had issued 45,000 summons since April 1, helping drive down rat sightings by 15% in May and effecting an even steeper decrease at the start of the summer season, when rats are at their most active, officials said.
The measure was expected to continue to drive down rat sightings, which had already sank 26% so far this month. Christopher Sadowski“We got rid of an old way of doing things where some trash was scheduled to sit on the curb for up to 32 hours,” Tisch said, adding that the schedules of New York’s Strongest were also revamped to clear garbage more efficiently.
“The haters and doubters wondered if it would make a difference… but the numbers don’t lie,” she said. “Less access to food means fewer rats.”
