New NYC trash rules: Restaurants must use containers to cut down on rats
New York City is targeting garbage in bags on the sidewalk. The above image shows a pile in 2021 during a slowdown in garbage collection by workers unhappy with former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Credit: AFP via Getty Images/ED JONES
Restaurants, groceries, bodegas and other food businesses in New York City must start placing trash in containers on the street, not in garbage bags that feed “the all-you-can-eat, rat buffet that has plagued our city for too long,” Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday.
The new rule covers the city’s approximately 40,000 food businesses, or 20% of all NYC businesses, and goes into effect July 30. Adams is also proposing to expand the containerization rule to all businesses with five or more locations in the city.
Private carters collect commercial trash; the city’s Sanitation Department, which regulates trash matters for all, collects residential trash.
A report earlier this year said that 77% of residential trash could be moved from bags to containers — by the curb — but doing so would mean the loss of up to 10% of available parking spaces.
Both of the rules Adams announced would cover 25% of all businesses citywide and about 4 million pounds daily of waste.
Due to parked vehicles in the streets and the sparsity of alleys and loading docks as well as other factors in the five boroughs, New York City is one of few places where most trash bags are heaped onto the public sidewalk before being picked up by garbage collectors.
The status quo is not only foul-smelling and unsightly but also a feast for rats. The creatures are a particular pet peeve of Adams, who has made reducing the city’s rat population a focus of his mayoralty.
“As I say over and over again, I hate rats, and rats love garbage bags. We cannot coexist. And I think you made it clear, commissioner,” Adams told his sanitation commissioner, Jessica Tisch, at a news conference. “Rats do not run the city. New York City used to be known for our mean streets, but going forward, we're going to be known for our clean streets.”
Businesses will get flexibility over the specifics of containers, but they must have a lid and other basic features, according to a news release about the plan.
Tisch said the containers should generally be between 30 and 96 gallons. The containers can be stored indoors if a business has the space. But if not, the containers can be stored along a business' property line or within three feet of that line.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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