| | Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash
How we deal with our garbage says a lot about who we are as a society. New York City must look as good as the people who live here. I have said it many times: We cannot allow our streets and sidewalks to be cluttered with unsightly black garbage bags, which are a tripping hazard for pedestrians and provide a constant all-you-can-eat buffet for rats. So, for the past four years, our administration has been sweeping in a new era of public cleanliness with our “Trash Revolution.”
Not only have we shifted garbage set out times from 4 PM to 8 PM — which means that trash is on the street for less time and doesn’t interfere with pedestrians during rush hours — but we have also required food-related businesses, as well as chain businesses of any type, to put their garbage into bins with tightly fitting lids. More than that: New Yorkers are composting roughly 5 million pounds of food and yard waste each week. That keeps these valuable organic materials out of landfills and diverts them to beneficial use — including as soil for gardens…