Trash cans to rid rats come at cost of parking spots: DSNY report
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- What would it take to get New York City's sidewalk trash packed into roadside containers all in the name of reducing the rat population?
The Department of Sanitation released a new report spelling out the benefits as well as some major drawbacks.
There are approximately 44 million pounds of trash collected every day by New York City sanitation workers.
The report says taking the trash off the curb and placing them in large shared containers is doable.
The Future of Trash study says containerization is feasible on 89% of city streets, comprising 77% of the city's total residential waste output.
"That's not just shared containers it's also individual bins we would use individual bins in low-density neighborhoods and in high-density neighborhoods shared containers," said Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation Jessica Tisch.
But the large shared bins would remove about 10% of street parking spaces. That equals about 150,000 parking spots and up to 25% of parking spots on some blocks.
"I don't think that's a good idea we need parking spots," resident Kenn Scott said. "And you're never gonna get rid of the rats no matter what you do."
However, cities all over the world have done this successfully, like Paris, London, and Barcelona, the report says.
"In England, we have those great big receptacles outside the door and you put your recycling on one and trash on the other," New York City resident Debbie Green said.
The goal is to cut down on the exploding rat population, all while freeing up space for pedestrians and making the city cleaner.
Some neighborhoods in Manhattan will get to try it out first. Community Board 9, which makes up neighborhoods like Morningside Heights and Hamilton Heights, is going to be part of an upcoming containerization pilot program.
The city says it's too early to know how many spots would go away - everything is being evaluated right now.
It's launching a two-year pilot in the fall in West Harlem at a cost of $5.7 million.
"Those costs account for a number of things obviously the cost of buying the containers the cost of retrofitting the fleet cost of increasing collection frequency," Tisch said.
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