they hope to use it to get rid of rats

The war against rats is reaching a new level: authorities have announced new rules for garbage collection in New York residential buildings. On Wednesday, October 11, officials announced a new plan to containerize trash, ABC7NY reported.

Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear that keeping streets clean is a top priority, and the Sanitation Department has unveiled another step in the fight against rats.

According to representatives of the mayor’s office of New York, unsealed garbage bags are becoming a veritable smorgasbord for rodents. In an attempt to solve this problem, city authorities have already announced that all businesses will soon be required to dispose of waste in containers. Now private homes will also be involved in solving the problem.

Together with Adams, the Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, Jessica Tisch, announced a new stage in the so-called “war on rats.” The city will soon require buildings with nine or fewer residential units to collect waste in containers – that’s about 765,000 buildings in New York City and about 95% of residential buildings in the city’s five boroughs.

New steps in the fight against rats

This is the next step in the plan to eliminate black trash bags from curbsides by requiring the use of secure containers with lids.

“Our administration is winning the war on rats, and we continue to fight,” Adams said. – Thanks to the new plan for sorting household waste into containers, 70% of the garbage in our city will be removed from the streets and not end up in rat cupboards. We are actively working to realize our ambitious vision and create the clean and safe city that New Yorkers expect and deserve.”

On the subject: A rat map was launched in New York: there you can track rodents and learn life hacks to combat them

Starting from March 2024, all city enterprises will be required to throw garbage into containers. Experts estimate that this will remove 20 million pounds of trash from city streets every day.

As of July of this year, all food-related businesses, including restaurants, catering, grocery stores, delis, bodegas, etc., are required to place their waste in containers. From September 5, this rule extended to all chain enterprises with five or more outlets in the city, regardless of what they sell.

“Less than a year ago, we stood in front of City Hall and declared war on rats, war on bags and war on the idea that other cities can get their trash off the streets but New York can’t,” Tisch said. “We are closer than ever to showing the doubters, the rat sympathizers and the trash lovers how wrong they were.”

The city also announced Wednesday that it will begin a competitive process to design, manufacture and sell a new dumpster.

The next phase is planned to be implemented from autumn 2024, but official recycling bins will be needed by summer 2026, and they will not be free.