By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The Department of Sanitation has changed its rules for how New Yorkers are to dispose of mattresses in response to the bed bug epidemic in the city.
The DSNY is requiring that people putting mattresses or box springs on the sidewalk for collection cover them with a plastic bag to help prevent an increase in bed bugs, the agency said in a statement.
Under the new policy, residents who don’t dispose of their mattress properly will incur a $100 fine. The DSNY won’t put the new rule — and the accompanying fine for not following it — into full effect until Jan. 3rd, 2011.
"There has been a rise in bed bug-related complaints within the City, and bedding is the prime nesting place for most bed bugs," Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty said in the statement.
"With this new rule, ...we will safeguard our workers and help to mitigate the spread of bed bugs throughout the City."
Council member Gale Brewer, who introduced a bill in 2008 to put the new mattress disposal rule into action, was supportive of the DSNY's efforts to curtail the spread of bed bugs throughout New York City.
"I appreciate the efforts made by the Department of Sanitation to address the bed bug epidemic that our city has been grappling with, an issue I have been working on since 2006," Brewer said in a statement.
If residents leave their improperly discarded mattress in front of a building that is not theirs, the property owner will receive a fine. But, as with all summonses the DSNY gives out, the owner would go before the Environmental Control Board and be able to dispute the fine, Sanitation Department spokesman Matt Lipani told DNAinfo.
Lipani emphasized that if someone dumps a mattress in front of a residence that isn't theirs, that constituted illegal dumping.
