Transcript: Mayor Adams, Sanitation Commissioner Tisch Announce Next Phase Of War On Rats: All Businesses Must Place Trash In Containers

September 19, 2023

Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Department of Sanitation: Good morning, everyone. We are here today for another very exciting sanitation related announcement. Without further ado, I want to welcome the Mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, and I know you are as excited as could be, because you talk about trash all the time. You know, I know your son is here… your mom talks trash all the time, you know that? [Laughter.]

No, really the step forward of something that we always say not only will we continue to be the safest big city in America, we are going to be the cleanest big city in America under a real partnership of dealing with Public Enemy Number 2. Public Enemy Number 1, maybe you don't know, are rats, and we are going to get rid of them. But Public Enemy Number 2 are garbage bags. They are the co-conspirators in dealing with the rat crisis that we're seeing.

And so I really want to thank our commissioner who has taken this head on, and folks thought it was impossible to move to containerizing our garbage, over a short period of time, but she has proven with determination we can get to the destination that we're looking for.

We are going after those black trash bags that everyone has complained about for years. It's a relic of the past during the garbage strike of years ago under Mayor Lindsay, I believe it was at the time, and now we are really bringing our city into the future.

We have we had great success containerizing our trash with food related businesses like restaurants, grocery stores, delis and bodegas, which has resulted in shutting down the just real free for all, as the commissioner was saying, the "all you can eat" rat buffets that has been all over our city with a real partnership led by her. And bringing on our rat czar— who is with us also today— we are witnessing a 20 percent decrease in rat complaints this past summer.

And so we're standing here in front of Gray's Papaya. They don't have a vegan hotdog, but you know, they have some great drinks, and I'm going to probably pop in and get one in a minute. But they just got it right: look at these containers here. They led by example of making sure that they're containerizing their garbage. Their job is really a symbol.

And the commissioner is clear, she finds locations that are not following the rules and is amazed at some of our prominent brands that in one voice they talk about cleanliness of the city but when you go outside their locales you're finding that they're not following the basic rules. And you are not ashamed of shaming them, and so we thank you for that.

We're not stopping here with just the containerizing of our eateries. As of March 1st, 2024, we are requiring all businesses to put out their trash in containers. This is a huge deal. We're talking about now 50 percent of all trash will be in containers in the city. No one thought we would get here that fast, and we are moving fast towards handling this.

Our businesses produce 20 million pounds of trash every single day. That's half of our city's waste, and starting in March, all of those black bags will be off our streets. Our streets will look cleaner, they will smell cleaner, and across not just the borough of Manhattan but across the entire five boroughs.

And New Yorkers won't have to worry about dodging over, tripping over these garbage bags. We're clear on that. The administration's committed to cleaning up our city and supporting small businesses at the same time. We're allowing substantial flexibility on the type and location of containers.

As I move around the city, stop in a restaurant, I would tell them, listen, you know, these bags are supposed to be in containers, this trash is supposed to be in containers. And we're not trying to be heavy handed, but we're sending a period of a warning, but that is going to turn into citations if it's not corrected.

Containerizing your garbage is a proven solution that has been adopted in cities all across the globe. We already made big changes in the last 20 something months, including the latest set out times for trash, curbside composting, which is well underway in Queens, has come to Brooklyn this fall and will be expanded city wide in the next 14 months.

Under this administration, the Department of Sanitation also has jurisdiction and funding for areas it didn't have before, like the highways. That was one of the top things that Mayor Bloomberg brought to our attention when I got elected: our highways are our welcoming mat, and our highways were filthy.

The commissioner said "let me get it done," and you have been doing that, cleaning out the highways and the underpasses and on stepped streets and greenways. All of these areas were no man's zones. No one really was dealing with who was cleaning them. We're going to every square inch of our city and make sure that it is clean.

It is something that no one thought would be possible, but it is possible– it’s possible when you have the right team, the right thinkers, and just people who are willing to get it done. So we're moving away from the idea that New York City is the place of mean streets to a place of clean streets. And I want to thank our entire team that's here, and our City Council partners from Gale Brewer to Councilwoman Julie Menin and my good friend Councilman Abreu.

So, they all have focused on this. Every Council member district talks about this all the time. Cleanliness is something that's important for the city, and we're focused on making that happen. Thank you, commissioner, for getting it done.

Commissioner Tisch: Thank you, Mayor Adams, and thank you to every business in every corner of the city that has already joined our trash revolution. We are here today to announce that by this coming spring, all businesses must do what food related businesses, chain stores and so many others have already done: move their trash off the streets and into WheelieBins.

That means that by March, less than 12 months after our drive toward containerization began in earnest    we will have containerized fully half of all of New York City's waste, nearly 20 million pounds a day, with even more on the way.

Together we are doing something that generations of New Yorkers only dreamed about: reclaiming the streets from the trash bags. It looks better, it smells better and the rats are already on the run. Look around us today at Gray's Papaya. This New York institution is the kind of place that the doubters said could never get its trash into containers, but they have. Even the McDonalds across the street, which just a few weeks ago was a repeat offender against the new order of street cleanliness, is now fully compliant.

You cannot walk through any neighborhood in the city without noticing the progress that we are making, without feeling that trash revolutionary fervor that is upending the way that we manage our waste and has led directly to a 20 percent decrease in rat sightings city wide and 45 percent in our rat mitigation zones compared to last summer.

And we are just getting started. The phased approach that included changing the set out times, container rules for food businesses and chain stores and now all businesses, coupled with pilots on the residential side, it is working. It is getting results.

But as we move forward on this long but historically in-actioned goal to rid the streets of trash and rats, I discovered something that caught me by surprise. I knew, like any New Yorker who walks the streets at night knows, that the bags of trash and the rats represent a united axis of filth that conspires to challenge our city's success.

But what I didn't know until we began this process is that the rats and the bags have a powerful ally: a nebulous, unseen force that is desperate to keep the all night, all you can eat rat buffet open. This third enemy of the trash revolution goes by many names, but to most, it is simply called the status quo.

The status quo would rather allow rats to feast upon the trash and the trash to litter our sidewalks than see New York City take steps that have been common around the world for decades. To the status quo, I pose one question: do you really, honestly believe that Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris and other world class cities can containerize their waste but that New York City cannot?

To the status quo, that inertial obfuscator of progress, I issue a challenge: take a deep breath through your nose and admit that deep in your heart you know the truth, that the city finally, at long last, does not smell like trash every hour of every day.

Mayor Adams is getting it done, and the status quo can get on board or get out of the way, because the trash revolution is a trash evolution, and these bins are part of a solution to reduce the trash pollution. Thank you very much.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Well said. You should be a writer. 

So, let's...why don't we get some of our Council people to talk trash. We're going to bring on Councilwoman Gale Brewer. I know this is a big thing for you. [Laughter.]

Councilmember Gale Brewer: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I'm Gale Brewer. This is my district on the Upper West Side. But there's a reason why we're here today. I am a huge fan of Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Ryan Merola, chief of staff. The reason I am is that I invited them to come at 10 o'clock at night to tour the Upper West Side, to see the bags under status quo and to see the rats.

And they came, and we walked around until midnight. And the worst block was Papaya's, right here. And the commissioner, every time she came by she would check, because she had called the owner and said, you must clean up, and the owner did. And she comes by every day, this commissioner, to check to see how the owner is doing.

This is the result: it's phenomenal. And I want to say that this is the kind of public official we need. It's not just this, it's of course, the wonderful composting in the orange bins which people love, and it's the thinking about how the city can be cleaner, healthier and not smell as bad. So, this is an example of a corner, but it's an emblematic of the entire city. So, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, for appointing Jessica Tisch, but also for all of her amazing work. And I love Ryan Merola. Thank you very much.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much. And I think that's the hallmark of this administration… Commissioner Tisch is representative of, if you were to call Deputy Mayor Isom or call Deputy Mayor Joshi, you know, we don't mind getting on the ground. And those stories will live on forever. And so I just think it was brilliant of the mayor to appoint these brilliant leaders. You know, so we're going to bring on Councilman Abreu.

Councilmember Shaun Abreu: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, thank you Commissioner Tisch. Just last year, Commissioner Tisch did a tour of a few schools in my district where there were mountains and mountains of trash bags in our streets preventing our students from walking safely to schools, we had rats running out of these trash bags; and to be quite honest, it was an eyesore.

A year later, Mayor Adams and Commissioner Tisch have invested nearly $6 million to containerize our trash in our schools. It's a miracle. It's a miracle to think that our parents and our students on their way to school no longer have to see these mountains of trash. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for doing that.

In addition, they also brought a residential pilot on 10 consecutive blocks in West Harlem from 143rd to 152nd where our trash is also containerized. Again, it's a miracle that we're not seeing trash bags on the streets; and for that, we are very grateful to the Mayor and Commissioner Tisch.

We've got rats on the run, we're sinking their ship: nice knowing 'ya, Mickey. Go back to Florida. You've squeaked your last squeak. You've reached the end of the rat race. Okay, I'm done, but be sure to join us at Jacob Schiff Playground on October 13th for a screening of Ratatouille. Thank you so much.

Mayor Adams: Boy, oh, boy, the creativity and the amazing, amazing Julie Menin. You know, many of our ideas we get from Julie, who is an amazing, amazing public official. Julie, come on and give us, talk trash.

Councilmember Julie Menin: Ah, thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, and I really want to thank you for your incredible leadership on this issue, and I want to thank the commissioner for all that she has done. I'm sorry I don't have any rat jokes.

But I do want to say one of the number one things I hear when people come to our great city who have never been here before, they say why on earth do we throw the trash on the streets? And now with this announcement today, that is going to change.

I chair the city's small business committee, and it's high time that our small businesses join us in helping to keep the city clean, and that's what's happening today. I also represent the East Side of Manhattan and commercial corridors like East 86th Street, produced eight times the amount of trash as residential streets. So, this announcement is transformative. I couldn't be more excited; and thank you so much, Mayor, Commissioner, for this.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Some on topics before we do off topics.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. This might be for the commissioner as well. DSNY had a program recently where commercial businesses could apply for the Keep Clean Curbs program to put their garbage in the curb lane instead of on the sidewalk, especially people who don't have as much space as, say, this business right here.

But the applications have closed. I was just wondering if you could say why the option to put the garbage in the curb lane is no longer an option for a commercial business and whether DSNY has any plans to still do that in some way.

Commissioner Tisch: Yes. As you know, we are moving forward with a massive residential pilot of placing large shared containers in the curb lane in the parking lane up in Hamilton Heights. That program began on time right after Labor Day, and it covers 10 residential blocks in Hamilton Heights and also the dozen plus schools in that district.

For the businesses, what we found is that the fixed containers— the large fixed containers— don't make as much sense as the smaller WheelieBins do. That's based on a few things, but among them, the volume of trash that individuals produce as well as the nature of the private carting business.

So, these larger containers that you would place in the parking lane would make sense if you could have several businesses putting their trash in the same containers, but because each business uses its own private carter to haul its waste, it makes more sense in New York City to have them, each business, using the individual bins.

Question: What's your pledge with regard to enforcement of this? What we've seen in the past is any initiative to disrupt the status quo, as the commissioner has talked about, we get non compliance and then the challenge is on you to enforce. What is your comment...

Mayor Adams: The commissioner is going to go through the exact plan. And listen, this is a transformative shift. You know, back in the early sixties, we all had garbage cans, and there was no such thing as putting out these large mounds of plastic bags. And there was a transformation where these bags have been introduced into our lives, and we almost normalized it.

And you know, all of these different plans of how do we make bags less attractive to rats, I just, you know, I don't subscribe to those theories. But so it's now time to really, almost back to the future, but it's a culture shift. You know, many people know nothing about these bins that we've had, they've only known garbage bags.

And so we know we want to get it right, we don't want to be heavy handed, we don't want to add added burdens on businesses. But we're very clear with a very timely, strategic warning system and then enforcement. So, why don't you go over the schedule we're doing.

Commissioner Tisch: So, as you know, we have been rolling out these container mandates for businesses in phases, and the reason to do it in phases is to make sure that we have the time to do an appropriate amount of outreach to each business as the rule making process is going on.

And so our outreach both to food businesses when they started and then to chain stores and now in this next phase includes things like sending mailers to every affected business, doing door to door canvassing to speak to someone at that business to let them know prior to the rules taking effect.

And then, a one month warning period where we issue businesses who are in violation of warning that looks a lot like a summons, so it has the effect of making people understand, this is serious, this is happening now, but we have that one month warning period where we give out tens of thousands of warnings, the idea being that any business who is not in compliance should get an opportunity through that warning period before they receive a summons when summonsing starts. And so that warning period and really doing a blitz on the warnings has been a very important part of our roll out strategy.

The other thing I want to note is that for this next phase...we're standing here, it's September, this next phase goes into effect on March 1st, and so we are giving businesses several months' notice so that they can make the necessary preparations, and even before that one month warning period that will go into effect for the remaining businesses.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: What's goin' on, Mike? I haven't seen you in a little bit.

Question: I've got two questions for you… They're short, so, you know, I think it's fine.

The first question is, do you regret tapping Eric Ulrich to be part of your administration? And the second question is, do you plan to meet with President Biden while he's in town for the UN General Assembly; and if not, why not? I know you have kind of been [inaudible] a little lately, what's the plan with that?

Mayor Adams: You know what I want? I'm on a handheld mic, so I can go to reporters like Phil Donahue, you know? I think I would just like to add a little, you know, yes, I could walk around and say, what do you think, like scratch my head like Phil Donahue, you know.

So, you know, think about it for a moment. You become knowledgeable about information of an individual and then people say, do you regret doing A, B or C. Like, you don't have that information in front of you; you make decisions based on what's in front of you.

What was in front of me was a young City Council, energetic, that worked hard. That was what's in front of me, that was what my decision was made of. And so those things that I'm not aware of, those proper review groups would make the determination, that's not up to me to decide that.

President Biden's coming to the city. I am hoping that he understands this beautiful city that's the economic engine of the entire country is been saddled with a $2 billion that we spent already, $5 billion we're going to spend in this fiscal crisis, $12 billion in the next two budgetary cycles. New York doesn't deserve this, the asylum seekers don't deserve this.

And so while he's here, I think that they should really reflect on, New York City has done its part, and we're...once we know what I'm going to do, we release a public schedule. I'm very public. Everybody knows where I am. You guys know where I am all the time. We release if we're going to be with the President or not.

Question: [Inaudible] have you spoken with the president about this issue, have you invited him to tour a migrant shelter while he's here? And then the second question for you, there's a bipartisan group of lawmakers that are introducing a lawsuit to try to stop the Floyd Bennett Field from being used to house migrants. Just trying to get your reaction on that as well.

Mayor Adams: I spoke to the president earlier this year and shared our concerns of both the governor also communicated with him, and that was the last time we spoke with the president. I have communicated with the White House staffers to talk about the urgency of the moment.

You know, we need an emergency declaration, we need to be properly funded, we need a decompression strategy not only in the city but throughout the state. This is just wrong, what we're doing to New York City residents and what we're doing to migrant, asylum seekers. And so to those bipartisan lawmakers, look, I get it. Everyone is just frustrated, everyone is really upset over this.

Here we had a city that was coming back after the pandemic, all that we were doing from public safety to investing in children and seniors, cleaning our streets. New York City, we went through enough during Covid, we were coming back. And so if lawmakers are upset, I got it. I got it. If residents are upset, I got it. If the migrant and asylum seekers, I got it. I know they're all upset.

And you know, when people are upset, you know, the first person they look for, they look for the mayor. Listen, that's the nature of the beast. So, if they want to go to court and sue to stop us from doing the Floyd Bennett Field, they have the right to do so, but if we're not putting it in Floyd Bennett Field, we're going to put it somewhere. And so they said, don't put in Floyd Bennett Field, then I can't...I don't want to hear them later saying, don't put it on my block.

We have to put 116,000 people that are coming, 10,000 a month, we have to put it somewhere. So, if the lawmakers are going to say, Eric, we don't want it on Floyd Bennett Field, which is away from homes, what is away from communities, away from schools, if they don't want it there, then they can't get upset when it goes inside their neighborhood and block.

We're trying to be as the least intrusive as possible to everyday New Yorkers; at the same time be as humane as possible, because we have to show that level of humanitarian aspect of this city.

Question: Good morning. I watched...I didn't see you in person yesterday, I watched, you were very emotional about the children involved with the fentanyl. [Inaudible] deciding we are going to have to carry Narcan around? I mean, it's very upsetting.

Mayor Adams: That is, you know, an indictment on us, man. That, you know, those four babies, you know, going through that was, you know, some part of this job that just rips you apart. You know, this is not all cutting ribbons and making announcements. You know, there have been some very painful moments of being mayor, and that was one of the most painful when I went to that daycare center.

You know, I think about Jordan, you know. I have a son, one son. Can you imagine? I look at 20 something years of life with him. Can you imagine a mother and a dad losing their baby months? All of that is gone because of the behavior of adults.

And I don't know what's wrong with us nowadays. You know, we have to carry around Narcan to prevent our children from overdosing. I mean, if that is not an indictment on our society how far we've gone from who we should be. We had fentanyl in a daycare center that for those children we could have lost. But we had to use Narcan. Three of them— thank God— it saved their lives.

And one of them, we lost. And I spoke with the dad, you know, of the baby we lost. And I went to the hospital that night to speak with the mom and dad of the three that were there. One of the babies, they were in one of the cribs next door from his sibling. And just looking at that baby laying on the crib, man, it rips your heart out, you know, that night, having to go and it was going to that hospital and sit in that truck.

You don't want to...look, I don't want to walk in a hospital and talk to a parent that, you know, their babies are being...they may lose them. You've got to...I had to get out of that truck, go into that hospital, sit in a room and tell their parents that some adult left fentanyl that put their babies through that. You know, and we've just become so screwed up as a society. You know, we really, we've got to get our acts together. We are destroying our children, and we need to stop.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. [Inaudible.] Obviously you know the comptroller is doing [a more] comprehensive analysis of the [inaudible] with DocGo. This comes after [inaudible]. My first question, do you still have confidence in that contract; and secondly, I wanted to get your reaction to the statement [inaudible] yesterday the DocGo contract [inaudible] about whether that [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, we are going to review and make sure that all the contracts meets their compliance. You know, it's an emergency contract because we have an emergency. I don't know if people realize that we are in a crisis right now. And so the comptroller has his job of reviewing these contracts, the emergency contract was approved.

He has his job to do, I have my job to do as the mayor. I'm just hoping that we don't allow politics to get in the way of us doing our job. Sometimes I think he does. But you know, he should review the contract. He should look over taxpayers dollars. That is his job, that is our obligation. And part of looking over taxpayers' dollars is making sure that they...we get the resources we need.

I'm still surprised, and I don't know if you guys ask him— you always ask me tough questions— he has yet to go to Washington. I'm just blown away. He has yet to go to Washington, D.C. and tell Washington, D.C. this should not be happening to New York. The comptroller. He's in charge of looking over our finances.

And I'm blown away that he's saying that we don't have a financial crisis, that you know, don't worry, be happy, everything is fine. You know, we have to cut and find $5 billion in efficiency, $12 in the next fiscal two years. And you would think the loudest voice of saying this should not be happening to New York is the person that's responsible for our finances.

He has not gone to Washington. He's more critiquing the mayor of who has to fix this problem and not critiquing the people who have created this problem. I mean, that doesn't...does that make sense to anybody? That he's critiquing, Eric, why aren't you doing such and such?

Hey, comptroller, why don't you critique the people who created this mess in the City of New York? He has yet to do that. Can we start some type of hashtag #GoToWashingtonBrad? He needs to go to Washington, D.C. and fight on behalf of New Yorkers, like I fight on behalf of New Yorkers. Thank you.