DSNY Plans to Discourage Rats and Foul Smells by Postponing Time to Put Out Bags to 8pm

By Yehudit Garmaise

Has the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), the world’s largest sanitation system, finally realized that the less time that garbage bags spend sitting out on the streets, the less time rats will have to come feast on everyone’s leftovers?

And that less-than-wonderful smells will also have less time to generate from the 12,000 tons of trash and recycling that the DSNY collects each day?

To fight the rats and foul smells on NYC streets, Mayor Eric Adams and DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch have suggested postponing the time at which trash bags can start to sit on city streets for pick-up.

On Wednesday, Tisch led a private meeting with members of the Real Estate Board of New York to go over her plan to require New York businesses and residents to put out their garbage bags only starting at 8 pm, instead of the current time of 4 pm. 

4 pm is the earliest starting time compared to other large cities, such as Boston, and Philadelphia, the New York Post reported.

One NYC restaurant owner said, “I’ve been here at this location 30 years and I can tell you the later the bags go out, the better! 

“The smell on the street in the summer affects the whole block. And believe me, it’s not conducive to enjoying outdoor dining. People don’t need to be seeing it or smelling it on their commutes home.”

To quickly remove the mounds of black trash bags from the curbs that will be put out later in the evening, the DSNY will send out more crews to pick up trash on the agency’s midnight shifts, said DSNY sources, who added that garbage crews have already started scooping up five million more tons of trash on the midnight to 8 am shift, while most New Yorkers are sleeping.

The change from 4 pm to 8 pm could take up to six months to go through, as the DSNY submits draft regulations to the City Record.

Then, a public comment period would take place before the time change is approved.

“New Yorkers put millions of pounds of trash and recycling on the street starting at 4 PM: right as the evening rush is getting underway – and then it stays out, serving as a nightclub for rats and other pests, until it’s collected,” DSNY spokesman Joshua Goodman said. “Well soon, we’re going to try to shut the clubs down.” 

Another measure the city has taken to try to eliminate rodent infestations is to allocate $22 million to install, in all five boroughs, rat-proof trash bins that have covers. In addition, on July 5, the DSNY returned to five-days-a-week street cleaning to keep the streets swept and clear.