The city’s approach to fight the war on rats is working, according to Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Adams, alongside Javier Lojan, the acting Department of Sanitation commissioner announced three major milestones in what the mayor is calling a “trash revolution.”
“As a 26-year veteran of this department, I can say from experience that the city is cleaner than it has been in at least a generation,” said DSNY Acting Commissioner Lojan. “Think back to just a few years ago, when mounds of black bags were a fixture on our sidewalks, swarming with rats at night, and many of our public spaces were cleaned inconsistently by a patchwork of entities.”
According to 311 data, rat sighting complaints are down by nearly 17% in an eight-month period compared to the previous year.
City officials credit the containerization requirements that slowly began to roll out over the last several years.
In 2022, trash set out times were pushed back from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to allow less time for garbage to sit on curbs and invite unwelcome critters.
In 2023, containerization requirements went into effect for all food related businesses, with chain businesses that produce large amounts of trash added later on.
In March 2024, all businesses were required to containerize their trash, then in November 2024 apartment buildings with one to nine units followed suit. The city says about 70% of all trash citywide is now containerized instead of on the sidewalks.
The efforts have led to a drop in rat related complaints, but people in the Bronx say they are skeptical of the improvements.
“They are in the shelters, they’re biting kids, they’re on the trains with us they’re on the platforms,” said Fordham resident Alize Robinson.
The mayor says buildings are already on track to meet the next threshold in June 2026, when buildings with one to nine units will be required to use NYC official bins.
According to the mayor, 800,000 bins have already been ordered, and another 80,000 have been purchased.