New York mayor introduces revolutionary wheelie bins to conquer hoards of rats
Mayor Eric Adams unveiling the new bins
Reuters
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has unveiled the city’s first official NYC wheelie bin rubbish pickup.
The Democrat mayor announced the bins with a timeline aimed at getting residential units to containerize their waste in order to target the city's rat problem.
The bin, equipped with wheels and a secure latching lid, is "affordable," according to the Mayor, with prices below $50 for the most common size, and now available for purchase.
Starting November 12, 2024, the Department of Sanitation will require all buildings with one to nine residential units to put their waste in containers, rather than leaving plastic bags out for pickup.
Mayor Eric Adams unveiling the new bins
Reuters
Mayor Adams said: "When I, when I go abroad and when I visit other countries, they are blown away that we still use plastic bags. We are leaders.
"We lead from the front, and we're going to catch up with everyone else and make sure we get these plastic bags off our streets. And that is why as of November 12, our administration will have containerized 70 per cent of our city's 14 billion pounds of annual trash.
"We are accomplishing this in only two years. People told us it would take five years.
"We’re doing it within a two-year period. And think about it, that’s nearly 10 billion pounds of trash each year that we won’t see or smell."
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Jessica Tisch said she wanted West Harlem look like Barcelona
Reuters
New York City’s Department of Sanitation Commissioner, Jessica Tisch added: "In the spring of 2025, we will be installing on-street containers to address this final frontier of the fight against the black bags.
"Beginning in one district, Manhattan Community Board 9, we have a plan to make West Harlem look like Barcelona, complete with large on-street containers and automated side loading trucks."
Mayor Adams added: "No one is concerned more about trash in the garbage bags that has, that have often been the feeder of our visual, just really total visual despair when it comes down to cleanliness than working-class people. They see it in the communities.
"They see it in their neighbourhoods. And we all have one unified dislike, and those are those pesky New York City rats. They're getting more and more bold. They no longer run from you. They just hang out and just do what they want. And we want to make sure we change that in a real way."
According to the Mayor's office, New York City’s 8.3 million residents produce around 14 billion annual pounds of waste.
Last August, containerization requirements went into effect for all food-related businesses in New York City.
The goal of the “trash revolution” is to get rubbish bags and waste off the streets, improving cleanliness and reducing the city’s rat population.