Starting today, half of New York City’s trash must go into bins

Good morning. It is Friday. We’ll find out why today marks another milestone in the effort to make the city less attractive to rats. We also get details about FBI searches of two homes owned by a close aide to Mayor Eric Adams.

Today, city companies that have not yet taken up arms in the fight against waste must do so.

The required weapon is a container with a secure lid. From now on, all companies must deposit their waste in such containers. They can no longer leave their waste outside in plastic bags.

Food-related businesses – restaurants, bars, delis, bodegas, supermarkets, wholesalers and catering companies – have been required to use containers since August last year. According to the Sanitation Ministry, these groups represent 20 percent of city businesses, but by far the largest share of trash that attracts rats.

Retail chains with five or more locations were subject to a similar waste containerization rule in September. That included two of the most ubiquitous components of New York’s streetscape: pharmacies and banks.

Today, all other commercial establishments must follow suit. Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said it was a monumental step because 50 percent of New York City’s waste would now go into dumpsters. (The remaining 50 percent is household waste.)

“It’s epic,” Tisch said, referring to today as “waste revolution day.”

“For decades, major cities around the world have been throwing their waste in dumpsters or other types of containers,” she said, “and New York City just doesn’t do that. It’s so fundamental for so many reasons: the look and feel of the streets, smells in the summer, the rats. Every day there is 44 million kilos of waste on the streets, and then we wonder why there is a rat problem.”

For companies that have not yet been covered by the waste container rules, a grace period of one month applies. Enforcement officers will issue warnings that resemble violations, but no fines will be imposed yet. Businesses with non-containerized waste will then be fined $50 for the first citation, a $100 fine for the second time, and a $200 fine for any subsequent citations.

Tisch said Thursday that containerization had already made a difference. Based on calls to 311, rat sightings dropped 6 percent between April and the end of 2023 — when the department changed the time businesses could put trash at the curb, prompting some to pick up containers — compared to the same nine months in 2022 She also said that in a 10-block area in West Harlem, rat complaints fell 68 percent between September and the end of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.

Food-related companies have been fined since September and retail chains since October. They also had a one-month grace period before the Sanitation Department began collecting fines. Tisch said 28,000 warnings have been issued in the past six months, but only 6,000 citations — a sign, she said, that the message about placing waste in containers had gotten through.

Still, Tisch said she sent letters last month to the CEOs of three major chains — CVS, Dollar Tree and Walgreens — along with photos of 30 stores that had been subpoenaed since the beginning of the year. “In the case of CVS,” she said, “we are seeing a high level of compliance.” (The three companies did not respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.)

Commercial waste is processed separately from household waste, which is collected by the city. Private transport companies collect the majority of waste from companies. In addition, the city exercises control over private trucking companies to make vehicle pickup safer for pedestrians and workers.

The city is also in the process of containerizing household waste. Last month, Mayor Eric Adams showed off a prototype of the city’s garbage truck of the future, a side-loader that can lift the extra-wide trash bins the city will soon introduce for use in large apartment buildings. Tisch said she expected to launch a pilot program as early as spring or summer 2025, with newly delivered trucks picking up trash in containers.

“The city is definitely moving in the right direction,” said Liz Picarazzi, who runs Citibin, a dumpster delivery company, “but implementation for small businesses is really difficult.” Rolling containers take up space in basements. And many stores don’t have a side wall or back wall on an alley where bins can be anchored, she says.

Christine Noh, owner of two sneaker and clothing stores in the Bronx and one in Washington Heights, said shipping waste in containers is difficult.

“We bought containers,” she said. “They didn’t even last a week. They were stolen.”

She said she called the Sanitation Department. “It seemed like my only alternative was to replace the bins with a frequency that would become burdensome,” she said. “These things aren’t necessarily cheap. A decent one costs almost $100, if not more.

She resorted to taking trash from her New York stores to her warehouse in Secaucus, NJ. The truck that transports goods from the warehouse to the stores collects trash from the three stores, she said.

Tisch said she didn’t consider stolen containers “a chronic problem” and that business owners could always go to the police.

Weather

Enjoy a sunny day with highs in the low 40s. Expect a chance of rain overnight, with temperatures steady around 40 degrees.

ALTERNATE PARKING

In effect until March 24 (Purim).

The latest New York news

Federal agents searched two homes owned by a close aide to Mayor Eric Adams, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. They said the searches were part of an investigation conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

The homes are owned by Winnie Greco, who was a prominent fundraiser for Adams’ 2021 campaign and has served as the mayor’s director of Asian affairs since taking office at City Hall.

My colleagues William K. Rashbaum and Emma G. Fitzsimmons write that it was unclear what the investigation was focused on and whether it was related to Adams, who has been the subject of a separate criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.

An FBI spokesman said the agency was “conducting law enforcement activities in the vicinity” of Greco’s homes in the Pelham Bay neighborhood of the Bronx, but declined to elaborate. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn said he had no comment.

Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Adams, said Thursday that Greco was on leave from her job at City Hall. “Our government will always follow the law,” said Levy, who noted that Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing, “and we always expect all of our employees to adhere to the strictest ethical guidelines.”

METROPOLITAN diary

Empty seat

Dear Diary:

I was on the subway one day and the train wasn’t very busy. Luckily I found a seat and there was an empty one next to me.

At the next stop, a woman perhaps in her sixties got on and saw the empty seat. She walked over, turned around and carefully lowered herself right onto my lap.