Take a trip to New York City, and it wouldn’t be uncommon to stumble upon a frenzied rat scurrying across a subway platform or to spot one of the creatures slinking into a gap in a sidewalk curb. That’s because rats have taken over the Big Apple, and plenty of other urban centers across the world.
It’s a problem that’s plagued the U.S.’s largest city since the mid-1700s when Greater Mongolia’s native brown rat made its way to North America on commercial and passenger ships. Behind humans, rats are the most populous mammal on the entire planet, and they inhabit every continent except for Antarctica. In New York City, government officials and pest control experts alike continue to look high and low for the best ways to deal with the relentless rat population.
So where the heck did all of these rats come from—and what kept them around? Look no further than the plastic bags of trash that once scattered the streets of New York to better understand one of the biggest contributing factors that led to the initial rat takeover in the city.
In this 2023 skin-crawling Popular Mechanics feature, pest management experts explain why the city’s prolific former use of plastic trash bags for waste disposal resulted in an explosion in rat populations throughout New York. However, with more recent policy changes, New York is actively working to curb rat sightings and keep trash off the streets.
There’s a reason why you may find a rat skidding across a city restaurant floor, or even one peeking out of a hole in your New York City apartment kitchen. The brown rat lives off of stealing food from other animals—a.k.a. humans. And an average adult rat doesn’t need much sustenance to survive, just an ounce of water and an ounce of food per day—a few sips from a leaky tap and a meal of crumbs from a discarded potato chip bag.
And these miniature scavengers go to work while the rest of the city sleeps. The nocturnal mammals typically build their nests within just 100 feet of known and consistent food sources, and, using their sense of smell, they navigate the darkness to find their late-night meals. This happens like clockwork in the streets of New York City, and for years you could see evidence of it in the torn-up plastic garbage cans and chewed-on food packaging that littered curbs across the Big Apple.
But the nightly rat feast didn’t always exist in the city. New Yorkers used to utilize metal trash cans for disposing of their garbage on the streets, and lids sealed the containers tight. That all changed in 1971, when the New York City Council decided to swap the secure containerization of trash for plastic bags. To the delight of sanitation workers, the lighter, easier-to-move plastic bags made for more convenient pick-up—and to the delight of rats, it made finding food much simpler.
In 1969, a survey showed that rats inhabited 11 percent of the city. As of 2023, according to Bobby Corrigan, PhD, a world-renowned rodentologist, that number likely sat at an astounding 90 percent. It’s a big reason why Corrigan, who consults with city officials across the U.S. on pest management practices, says bringing back containerization could keep the rats at bay. “No garbage, no rats,” Corrigan says in the full story from Pop Mech.
That initially seemed easier said than done. While former Mayor Eric Adam’s administration said in 2023 that 89 percent of the city could realistically replace plastic bags with bins and cans, they forecasted it would come at a huge cost—millions of dollars, for that matter. That’s not to mention the hundreds of thousands of parking spots government officials said trash bin usage would eliminate, as well as the funds the city would need to increase trash collection frequency.
But the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has been working to change that narrative since before the Adams admin weighed those costs. The department instituted the sweeping “Trash Revolution” initiative to bring back containerization to the city. In October 2022, DSNY began incentivizing containerization by allowing earlier set-out times for waste placed in containers. In August 2023, containerization requirements for all food-related businesses went into effect, and by March 2024, containerization was mandated for all New York City businesses. DSNY instituted container requirements for low-density residential buildings in 2024 (which effectively containerized 70 percent of trash in the city), and as of now, about 1.1 million official NYC Bins are used across New York City. The city also began piloting European-style, on-street containers called Empire Bins in 2025 in West Harlem for use by larger apartment buildings and schools.
This year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson announced a commitment to complete containerization of all trash in the city by 2031. By the end of 2027, eight of New York City’s 59 community districts will set out all their trash via containers.
Additionally, pest experts like Corrigan continue to do passionate grassroots work. They’re hitting the New York City streets, talking to restaurant owners, home renters and owners, and health department inspectors to educate them on integrated pest management. Community members can even take a free course called Rat Academy, which helps New Yorkers learn about how they can best mitigate against rat infestation in their homes and businesses.
And the numbers show the trash containerization methods are working. According to the DSNY and NYC’s Rat Information Portal, rat sightings have dropped each month since the institution of the low-density residential containerization rules in 2024. Year to date, the city has seen a significant 23 percent decline in service requests for rat sightings compared to this time just last year.
Will New York City ever be rat-less? That’s hard to say, but as of now, the city and its residents are diligently working to institute and follow policy changes to keep rats from encroaching on their spaces.
Curious about the rat’s history in the Big Apple? Scamper over to Pop Mech’s full-length feature to see how New Yorkers are fighting back against the pests.
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