NYC Restaurants, Bodegas Must Put Trash In Containers Under New Rules

NEW YORK CITY — New trash rules for New York City's restaurants, bodegas, delis and chain businesses soon could have rodents hungrily saying, "Oh, rats."

Roughly 4 million pounds of waste every day will go into rat-proof containers under two sets of rules unveiled Wednesday by Mayor Eric Adams.

The first rule is that all food-related businesses — that is, restaurants, grocery stores, delis and bodegas — must put trash in secure containers rather than on the street. A second, still-in-the-works mandate would require chain businesses with five or more locations to do the same for their trash.

"These two proposals will have a transformative effect on our city and will eliminate the mountains of food and waste piled up in bags and on our sidewalks," Adams said.

The upcoming trash mandates follow another rule that changed garbage set-out times in an effort to reduce the city's ever-present mountains of plastic trash bags along streets and sidewalks.

Besides being unsightly and unsanitary, city officials have argued that those trash mountains fed the city's growing swarms of rats.

Jessica Tisch, the city's sanitation commissioner, said rat sightings in May and June were down 15 percent and 26 percent, respectively, since the set-out rule took effect.

The city has also issued 45,000 summonses or warnings over trash violations in recent months, she said.

"The numbers don’t lie: less access to food means fewer rats," she said.

The new rule for food-related businesses will go into effect July 30, officials said.

The chain store trash requirement could take longer as it needs to go through a rule-making process, officials said.