Waste Not, Want Not

Crain's In$ider is reporting today that your truly is going to attempt to use the threatened rise in the city's carting rates as a lever for the push toward the pilot program for food waste disposers. The rate hike, which we believe is inevitable, will hit the city's food stores and restaurants very hard.

It is also true, however, that the recent furor surrounding the Taco Bell rats gives this issue even more salience. The use of food waste disposers, by eliminating the rodent food source, is a major public health measure, and should be supported as such. The two issues: relieving food businesses of higher disposal costs, and enhancing the public health of neighborhoods, should make for a compelling argument for disposers (and another chance for the speaker to stand up for the city's neighborhood businesses.