Council Member Shaun Abreu with rat-proof trash containers at P.S./I.S. 210 Twenty-first Century Academy for Community Leadership, one of the 14 schools in Harlem to receive the new bins.
Office of Council Member Shaun Abreu
Just over a dozen schools in Harlem have received trash containers to prevent rodents from diving into loose trash piles.
The effort to install rat-proof trash containers was led by Council Member Shaun Abreu (D-7), who announced his efforts to “start containerizing our trash” on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The containers, color-coded for different types of waste, were recently installed at 14 schools across Harlem and will be installed along 10 residential blocks in West Harlem in early September, according to Milo Gringlas, who directs communications and public engagement for Abreu.
The placement of the residential containers is being determined by the city’s sanitation department based on residential typologies — such as brownstones, larger apartments, and walkups — as well as uncomplicated blocks from streetscape perspective and 311 service request calls about rodents, Gringlas told amNewYork Metro.
The residential blocks will be receiving the same trash containers, but the specifics are not yet available from Abreu’s office.
New York City schools generate more than 40,000 tons of trash every year, according to the city’s zero waste schools guide.
According to Aubreu’s office, the Council Member had heard from administrators and parents “who hated watching their kids walk past a bunch of trash on their way to and from school.”
The sanitation department will clean and monitor all of the trash containers on a regular basis.
Abreu worked closely with the Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch to “make sure schools were prioritized in this pilot, so educators can manage their students rather than manage trash clean-up.”
“This project has been many months in the…
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