Baltimore Residents Will Get New Trash Cans Soon

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says not a day goes by without someone asking that Baltimore be a cleaner place to live.

Tuesday, as Mike Schuh reports, she answered that request with a special kind of plastic box.

Community president Annie Hall takes a lot of pictures of her Penn-North neighborhood---but they're not the kind she'll hang in any frame. Her images document what happens when people don't care, when neighbors don't have good---or any---trash cans.

"And with stuff like this, we cannot keep the rats down in the neighborhood," she said.

So a few months ago, the city experimented with special cans. The plastic is so think, rats can't chew through.

Sandra Almond-Cooper and 9,000 of her neighbors got one.

"It made such a difference," she said. "So when this came up, the rats are 75% better in our community, in our alleyways, in our yards."

The city realized the good cans with sturdy lids were working and ordered enough for every home.

Tuesday, the delivery person was dressed for success. She dropped off the first cans.

"We strive to be a cleaner city with these municipal trash cans. When we had the pilot program, the neighborhoods were cleaner, there were fewer rats and our DPW workers had fewer injuries because it's a uniform can," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Every can is numbered and assigned to a home---but at $8 million, privately, some citizens questioned the cost.

"Yes, it's expensive, but it's---we're financing the payments over time and we're working to implement it, so we are able to have a cleaner city. You know, everyone says they want a cleaner city; when you give them a cleaner city, they complain about it," Rawlings-Blake said.

All of the new trash cans will be delivered to all occupied homes by summer.