NEW YORK — New York City’s tradition of piling trash bags on the curb for pickup is going the way of the dinosaur.
Starting Friday, the Big Apple’s 200,000 businesses must throw their trash bags into trash containers, as communities across the county and around the world have long done.
The requirement is the next phase in the city’s efforts to curb what Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has called a 24-hour “rat buffet” of trash on sidewalks.
In August, the city began requiring restaurants, convenience stores and bars to use a sturdy trash can with a secure lid and extended the requirement to chain stores the following month.
Now all businesses in the city, including mom-and-pop shops, must comply. Then, in the fall, residential buildings with nine units or fewer will come under the mandate.
Commercial trash makes up nearly half of the roughly 44 million pounds of trash the city collects each day, according to Adams, who has focused on combating the city’s rodents.
City officials will issue warnings during the first month of the new mandate, but will begin issuing citations in April, Health Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in media appearances Friday morning with Adams.
Joshua Goodman, spokesman for the city’s sanitation department, said the city’s only requirement for businesses is that they use a solid container with a secure lid.
Businesses should work with their waste hauler to determine what type of container they should use, because business trash is collected by private haulers, not the city.
2024-03-02 03:57:06
#Containers #bags #trash #rules #York #businesses #effect
