Rats with a preference for pizza may be out of luck.
NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue announced town has installed pizza-friendly disposal bins to accommodate the bulky boxes which might be a hassle to cram into traditional garbage cans, often resulting in leftovers for rodents.
The primary of six recent square bins was installed in Father Demo Square in Greenwich Village earlier this month, and the remainder were reportedly rolled out Friday in various city parks — the most recent salvo in town’s war on rats.
“Everyone knows that you just shouldn’t attempt to fit a square peg right into a round hole, which is why we’re deploying special trash cans only for pizza boxes to parks throughout the five boroughs,” Donoghue said.
Mayor Eric Adams hopes the brand new tan containers marked up in red and white that say “empty pizza boxes only,” will keep the streets tidy and fend off rats, a scourge the rodent-hating mayor has tried to handle with a “rat czar” and “anti-rat activists.”
Each bin retails for about $950 each, Gothamist reported.
The brand new boxes might be found stationed next to traditional garbage and recycling receptacles.
The Central Park Conservancy arrange an analogous recycling bin in May near the Great Lawn.
The green-colored bin is a component of a pilot program there, NBC News reported.
“On a warm busy day, the conservancy can remove greater than 100 boxes on this area of the park alone,” conservancy spokeswoman Kat Brady told the outlet.
The Central Park bin debuted just at some point after the mayor announced the primary “National Urban Rat Summit,” scheduled for September to handle “best practices on rodent mitigation.”
