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The year is 2025. New York takes the bold, unprecedented step of storing their waste in receptacles which cannot be easily chewed through by pests. Will this wi

The year is 2025. New York takes the bold, unprecedented step of storing their waste in receptacles which cannot be easily chewed through by pests. Will this wild experiment yield results? Scientists remain skeptical.

PedroBatista 2y ago
While the design of NYC - plus economic pressures - never accounted for domestic waste storage ( in a global and universal way for all buildings/tenants ). The truth is no one ( with actual power ) did anything meaningful to stop this. It became some type of "culture" or "it always has been this way" type of situation. With a city budget in the billions and a VERY active and "enforce/fine" happy public sector there is no excuse of "people don't just follow basic sanitation rules", it's in the culture and I hope this finally starts to go away as there is no reason to be this way.
newsclues 2y ago
I guess there are no homeless or unemployed people in NYC who could be mobilized to work on the problem. Humans struggle in urban environments to resolve problems because “someone else should”.
- petee 2y ago
  > someone else should Isn't that kinda what you're suggesting here? Most piles of trash aren't caused by homeless, its residents, so why should they need to be responsible? Residents could just buy their own cans as its their own problem
  - gnkyfrg 2y ago
    [dead]
- eru 2y ago
  The homeless aren't exactly the best workforce. For many, there's a reason they are homeless despite plenty of support systems that helps people become more 'homeful'. Similar, but generally less so, for some of the unemployed. If you want to 'mobilize' people, just advertise jobs normally and use a normal hiring process. One that should, of course, be open to currently homeless or unemployed. For your proposal, compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000
tantalor 2y ago
When will the woke nonsense stop. /s
pkulak 2y ago
Considering that, according to polling, most residents would rather live with rats than lose the parking spot per block required for proper bins, I’d say this is a huge accomplishment in the fight against rats… and car brain.
- eru 2y ago
  I hope the recent congestion charge can slowly change the culture towards market pricing for parking spots, too. And I hope they make the congestion charge more dynamic. Here in Singapore where we had congestion charging even long before London, we have some electric gizmos that measure congestion and adjust the charge dynamically. Basically, if traffic slows down, they hike the charge. If traffic flows smoothly enough, they lower the charge.
- DonHopkins 2y ago
  If only they could train rats to steal cars, pack them full of trash, and drive them out to the suburbs.
petee 2y ago
I guess I'm confused about the article now because Brooklyn has trash cans everywhere, and I even recall seeing them 2-3 years ago. If I pick random street views every street has lidded bins
- xethos 2y ago
  You're likely underestimating what rats can and will chew through to get a bite to eat.
  - petee 2y ago
    No, I'm very familiar with rats, but I can say for a fact that my friend's heavy duty plastic wheeled bins (the common ones) have been on the street 24/7 in NY and haven't been chewed into in the past 4 years. Probably how smooth that plastic is. Fwiw the pilot program isn't using metal cans either, and apparently is working. Edit: fun side note, I've seen a squirrel eat a hole through a 2" oak door to escape a basement, so Im not discounting a motivated rat :)
asdff 2y ago
Rats live where there are bins too.

PedroBatista 2y ago

While the design of NYC - plus economic pressures - never accounted for domestic waste storage ( in a global and universal way for all buildings/tenants ). The truth is no one ( with actual power ) did anything meaningful to stop this. It became some type of "culture" or "it always has been this way" type of situation. With a city budget in the billions and a VERY active and "enforce/fine" happy public sector there is no excuse of "people don't just follow basic sanitation rules", it's in the culture and I hope this finally starts to go away as there is no reason to be this way.

newsclues 2y ago

I guess there are no homeless or unemployed people in NYC who could be mobilized to work on the problem. Humans struggle in urban environments to resolve problems because “someone else should”.

petee 2y ago
> someone else should Isn't that kinda what you're suggesting here? Most piles of trash aren't caused by homeless, its residents, so why should they need to be responsible? Residents could just buy their own cans as its their own problem
- gnkyfrg 2y ago
  [dead]
eru 2y ago
The homeless aren't exactly the best workforce. For many, there's a reason they are homeless despite plenty of support systems that helps people become more 'homeful'. Similar, but generally less so, for some of the unemployed. If you want to 'mobilize' people, just advertise jobs normally and use a normal hiring process. One that should, of course, be open to currently homeless or unemployed. For your proposal, compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000

tantalor 2y ago

When will the woke nonsense stop. /s

pkulak 2y ago

Considering that, according to polling, most residents would rather live with rats than lose the parking spot per block required for proper bins, I’d say this is a huge accomplishment in the fight against rats… and car brain.

eru 2y ago
I hope the recent congestion charge can slowly change the culture towards market pricing for parking spots, too. And I hope they make the congestion charge more dynamic. Here in Singapore where we had congestion charging even long before London, we have some electric gizmos that measure congestion and adjust the charge dynamically. Basically, if traffic slows down, they hike the charge. If traffic flows smoothly enough, they lower the charge.
DonHopkins 2y ago
If only they could train rats to steal cars, pack them full of trash, and drive them out to the suburbs.

petee 2y ago

I guess I'm confused about the article now because Brooklyn has trash cans everywhere, and I even recall seeing them 2-3 years ago. If I pick random street views every street has lidded bins

xethos 2y ago
You're likely underestimating what rats can and will chew through to get a bite to eat.
- petee 2y ago
  No, I'm very familiar with rats, but I can say for a fact that my friend's heavy duty plastic wheeled bins (the common ones) have been on the street 24/7 in NY and haven't been chewed into in the past 4 years. Probably how smooth that plastic is. Fwiw the pilot program isn't using metal cans either, and apparently is working. Edit: fun side note, I've seen a squirrel eat a hole through a 2" oak door to escape a basement, so Im not discounting a motivated rat :)

asdff 2y ago

Rats live where there are bins too.