Forget building “a better mousetrap.” The most effective solution for getting rid of the rats and other rodents invading homes and businesses across New York City is cutting off their food supply.
What’s the primary food supply for the common New York City rat? Not pizza — trash.
Garbage bags left on the street or in unsecured trash cans are an endless feast for rodents, and keep them alive and proliferating across the city. Rats, mice and other vermin spread filth and disease where they go, but merely trapping and catching them is not enough.
That’s where City Hall and the Sanitation Department come in. When Mayor Eric Adams sought a way to address the city’s rat problem several years ago, they came up with a pilot program of containerization — putting all of a block’s trash in centrally-located, secured, rodent-proof bins for regular pickup. Other cities around the world have such a trash pickup system, and the West Harlem neighborhood (Community District 9) became the guinea pig to see how it could work for New York.
On Monday, the city announced that 100% of all trash collected in West Harlem and District 9 had been containerized. More than 1,100 bins have been installed in the district alone, and the program’s impact is already being felt; the Adams administration says 311 calls regarding rat sightings in District 9 have steadily decreased over the past six months.
The way Mayor Adams sees it, this is the “future of trash” collection in NYC — and that future is now. “We will cascade throughout the remaining community boards,” he said in West Harlem on June 2. “Fifty-nine community boards in the city and they are all going to embrace this concept.”
But without question, containerization will be a costly endeavor for the city. If the math holds, and the city requires 1,100 bins (at least) for its 59 community districts, that means the city will need to buy 64,900 trash containers to cover them all, along with specially equipped garbage trucks used to lift them, and training for sanitation workers to man the trucks.
Yet this could be one of the best investments City Hall can make in a cleaner New York City, and help spell the end of a decades-old rat crisis that long vexed residents, business owners and elected officials alike.
If we’re all sick and tired of the rats and mice that plague almost every corner of the city, the choice is simple: Containerization is our best bet at containing the problem.
