Using crime fighting tactics, the city is taking on its rats and rubbish

利用打擊犯罪的策略，城市正在與老鼠和垃圾作鬥爭

AH
NEW YORK, how it sparkles—from afar. Street level is a different
experience. Smelly rubbish mounds create trash-fjords on city pavements,
with buildings on one side and piles of black bin-bags on the other.
New Yorkers know to lift their feet to avoid the garbage juice that
leaks from the bags. Rats feed on the bags, startling even the hardiest
citizens. For decades New York endured this, nay accepted it, but no
more. A massive “containerisation programme” is under way. The piles of
black bin-bags are being replaced by a technology new to the city:
secure bins.

啊，紐約，它是多麼閃亮–從遠處看。在街頭則是另一番景象。臭氣熏天的垃圾堆在城市人行道上形成垃圾峽灣，一邊是建築物，一邊是成堆的黑色垃圾袋。紐約人知道抬起腳來避開從垃圾袋中滲出的垃圾汁。老鼠以垃圾袋為食，即使是最頑強的市民也會被嚇一跳。幾十年來，紐約人一直忍受著這種生活，甚至可以說是接受了這種生活，但現在再也不會了。一項大規模的
"集裝箱化計劃 "正在實施。成堆的黑色垃圾袋正在被一種城市新技術所取代：安全垃圾桶。

On
October 11th Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor, and Jessica Tisch, his
sanitation commissioner, announced that from autumn of 2024 buildings
with nine or fewer residential units will be required to place all trash
in secure containers. That will cover 765,000 buildings, or 95% of the
city’s residential properties. It follows similar measures for
commercial trash, which amounts to roughly 20m pounds (9m kg) a day,
announced last month. Container rules for the city’s 40,000 food-related
businesses, including restaurants, grocers and bodegas, were
implemented over the summer. Altogether 70% of the city’s waste is
heading into containers.

10
月 11 日，紐約市市長埃裡克-亞當斯（Eric Adams）和環衛專員傑西卡-蒂施（Jessica Tisch）宣佈，從 2024
年秋季起，住宅單元數在 9 個或 9 個以下的建築必須將所有垃圾放置在安全的容器中。這將覆蓋 76.5 萬棟建築，即全市 95%
的住宅物業。在此之前，上個月還宣佈了針對商業垃圾的類似措施，每天大約有 2000 萬磅（約合 900 萬公斤）的商業垃圾。針對全市 40,000
家食品相關企業（包括餐館、雜貨店和酒館）的容器規定已於今年夏天開始實施。該市總共有 70% 的垃圾被裝入集裝箱。

Containerisation
is the norm for cities like Barcelona, Milan and Paris. Cities in South
Korea and the Netherlands use submerged ones, something out of reach
for New York, where the realm below the pavement is a crowded maze of
sewage pipes, gas pipes, power cables, fibre optics and the subway. “We
are playing a massive game of catch-up with the rest of the world,” says
Ms Tisch. “New York City is not going to be the first city to
containerise trash; we’re going to be one of the last.”

集裝箱化是巴塞羅那、米蘭和巴黎等城市的常態。韓國和荷蘭的城市使用的是水下集裝箱，這對紐約來說是遙不可及的，因為紐約的人行道下面是汙水管道、煤氣管道、電力電纜、光纖和地鐵組成的擁擠的迷宮。"蒂施女士說："我們正在與世界其他地方玩一場大規模的追趕遊戲。"紐約市不會是第一個將垃圾集裝箱化的城市，我們將是最後一個。

Containerisation
seems revolutionary. But it is also a return to old ways. Metal
containers, like the one Oscar the Grouch, a character on Sesame Street,
lives in, had been used since the 1930s to keep rats at bay and the
city’s streets clean. Their use faded after a 1968 strike saw piles of
rubbish uncollected for nine days. The stench and mess became so bad the
city distributed plastic bags for the overflow. They soon became a
formal part of rubbish collection.

集裝箱化似乎是一場革命。但這也是一種舊方式的迴歸。自
20 世紀 30 年代起，人們就開始使用金屬集裝箱，如《芝麻街》中的人物奧斯卡-格勞奇（Oscar the
Grouch）所住的集裝箱，以防止老鼠出沒，保持城市街道的清潔。在 1968
年的一次罷工中，成堆的垃圾連續九天無人收集，此後，鐵桶的使用逐漸減少。臭氣熏天，髒亂不堪，於是市政府分發了塑膠袋來裝載垃圾。塑膠袋很快成為垃圾收集的正式組成部分。

The
bags also helped the growth of the rat population. Mr Adams, a former
police captain who promised to fight both crime and rats, declared rats
“Public Enemy No 1”. This is more than just rhetoric. The Sanitation
Department draws inspiration from the Police Department. Three decades
ago city crime began to fall when policing changed from responsive to
preventive tactics and enforcement, relying on crime statistics to spot
problem areas. This CompStat programme entails weekly crime-control
strategy meetings among the NYPD’s commanders.

這些袋子還助長了老鼠數量的增長。亞當斯先生曾是一名警察隊長，他承諾打擊犯罪和老鼠，並宣佈老鼠為

"頭號公敵"。這不僅僅是說說而已。環衛部門從警察局得到了啟發。三十年前，城市犯罪率開始下降，當時的警務工作從應對性轉變為預防性策略和執法，依靠犯罪統計資料來發現問題區域。這項
CompStat 計劃要求紐約警察局的指揮官每週召開一次犯罪控制戰略會議。

Ms
Tisch, who worked in the Police Department for 12 years, launched
TrashDash in May, inspired by CompStat. Every week sanitation leaders
meet to create strategies to deal with upticks they see in rubbish data
from 311 calls (a sort of municipal customer service). For example, if
they see a spike in missed collections, they will dig into the
complaints to see what they have in common. The department has also
stepped up enforcement of current rules. At the same time it is cleaning
highways, enforcing rules for street vendors and implementing citywide
compost collection.

在警察局工作了
12 年的 Tisch 女士受 CompStat 的啟發，於今年 5 月推出了 TrashDash。每週，環衛部門的領導都會召開會議，針對從
311
電話（一種市政客戶服務）中獲得的垃圾資料，制定應對策略。例如，如果發現漏收垃圾的情況激增，他們就會對投訴進行分析，看看這些投訴有什麼共同點。該部門還加強了對現行規則的執行。與此同時，該部門還在清潔高速公路、執行街頭攤販規則並在全市範圍內實施堆肥收集。

“We
absolutely and emphatically reject the status quo,” says Ms Tisch. She
has overhauled operations so that trash in high-density areas is
collected earlier. The rats appear to be in retreat (though they could
be regrouping). This summer brought a 20% decrease citywide in rat
complaints to 311. “Rat-mitigation zones” saw a 45% decrease. A pilot
containerisation programme was launched last month in Hamilton Heights,
in Manhattan’s West Harlem, a neighbourhood with a large number of rat
complaints. Rodent-resistant containers were put on the streets for
residents. Rubbish collection increased to six days a week in August.
Schools in the area are also using containers.

"蒂施女士說："我們絕對堅決反對現狀。蒂施女士說，"我們絕對反對現狀。"她對垃圾處理工作進行了全面調整，以便更早地收集高密度地區的垃圾。老鼠似乎正在撤退（儘管它們可能正在重新集結）。今年夏天，全市的老鼠投訴減少了
20%，達到 311 起。"滅鼠區 "減少了 45%。上個月，在曼哈頓西哈萊姆區的漢密爾頓高地（Hamilton
Heights）啟動了一項集裝箱化試點計劃，該社群有大量老鼠投訴。街道上為居民放置了防鼠容器。8
月份，垃圾收集增加到每週六天。該地區的學校也在使用容器。

Most
New Yorkers are on board but, this being New York, unanimity is
elusive. Andrew Rigie of the New York Hospitality Alliance, which
represents restaurants and bars, points out that they do not have space
inside for bins, while leaving them outside reduces sidewalk eating
space. Clare Miflin of the Centre for Zero Waste Design worries that
people will turn against the containerisation if the pilot scheme is not
done well, or if it ends up being too expensive.

大多數紐約人都表示支援，但由於紐約的特殊性，意見並不統一。代表餐館和酒吧的紐約酒店業聯盟的安德魯-裡基（Andrew
Rigie）指出，餐館和酒吧內部沒有空間放置垃圾桶，而將垃圾桶放在室外又會減少人行道上的用餐空間。零廢棄物設計中心的克萊爾-米夫林（Clare
Miflin）擔心，如果試點計劃做得不好，或者最終成本太高，人們會反對集裝箱化。

Sanitation
is one of the few things that is firmly under municipal control, unlike
the MTA (which runs the subway). So the city has a lot of power, says
Justin Wood of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Ms Tisch is
well aware of her agency’s impact: “If we don’t do our job for one day,
everyone notices. If we don’t do our job for two or three days, that’s a
public-health crisis.” If she succeeds, New Yorkers will no longer have
to sniff trash baking in the summer heat. And the all-night,
all-you-can-eat rat buffet will be closed. ■

與運營地鐵的MTA不同，環衛是少數幾個由市政當局牢牢掌控的部門之一。紐約公共利益律師事務所的賈斯汀-伍德（Justin
Wood）說，因此市政府擁有很大的權力。蒂施女士非常清楚她的機構的影響力："如果我們一天沒做好工作，每個人都會注意到。如果我們兩三天不盡職，那就是公共衛生危機。如果她成功了，紐約人就再也不用在炎炎夏日嗅著垃圾的味道了。通宵達旦、任食任吃的老鼠自助餐也將關閉。■