Curbside trash is a problem in NYC. Officials have a not-so-novel fix: plastic bins
On a recent fall morning in central Harlem, stacks of plastic garbage bags filled the sidewalks in front of the well-kept brownstones. Some of the black bags leaked brownish-gray liquid, others sat intermingled with discarded furniture. Several contained ragged holes in the sides, where they'd been chewed through by rats the night before.
This scene isn't limited to certain parts of New York City. It occurs throughout the neighborhoods in the five boroughs, from the residential streets of the Bronx to the skyscraper-filled blocks of Midtown Manhattan. Every evening, before nightly trash collections, New Yorkers fling bags out onto the sidewalks to be picked up by sanitation crews. Colonies of rats scamper back and forth, chewing through the thin plastic and nestling inside to feast on the contents.
After decades as the next phase of the city's "war on rats."
