Dynamics Between Residential Composting and Rodent Sightings in Boston

Abstract

Commensal Rattus species rank among the most widespread urban pests thriving on human-generated resources and posing significant challenges to public health and infrastructure (Lee et al., 2021). Despite their prevalence, there remains a gap in understanding their urban ecology and effective prevention strategies (Lee et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2022a; Lee et al., 2022b). City officials have increasingly turned to composting initiatives as rodent management tools, recognizing the relationship between poorly managed food waste as an attractant for high rodent activity (Lee et al., 2022a; Sánchez et al., 2021; Tamayo-Uria et al., 2014). However, it remains unclear how effectively residential composting contributes to rodent control, particularly across different urban environments and socioeconomic contexts (Lee et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2022a). The “War on Rats” is complex, and assessing the effectiveness of food waste control strategies requires a nuanced understanding of rodent and human behavior (Lee et al., 2022b). The main objective of my thesis was to investigate the impact of food waste control strategies on rodent complaint levels in Boston from 2022-2024. I focused on how Boston’s voluntary residential composting program and community compost bins impacted 311 rodent sightings reported across neighborhoods. I hypothesized that increased residential composting would decrease rodent sightings, with varying effects across different urban densities. I evaluated these relationships using time series analysis, spatial clustering, buffer analysis, and lagged correlation. Results showed that despite composting participation increasing by 54% (from 17,134 to 26,426 households) and food waste diversion rising by 228% (510.44 to 1,675.13 tons), rodent sightings rose by 0.4% (5,944 to 5,965). Additional analysis of 14 Project Oscar community compost bins revealed rodent activity increases of 180% in Allston and 29% in South End. K-means clustering revealed four distinct neighborhood patterns based on composting participation and 311 service requests about rodents: low-activity areas with minimal engagement in composting and rodent sightings, moderate zones with balanced participation in both variables, high-rodent sightings (150-350 sightings) with moderate composting adoption, and high-composting neighborhoods (300-900 sign-ups) with few rodent sightings (50-150 sightings). Additionally, I investigated how composting participation varied across neighborhood characteristics. I hypothesized higher human density areas would show weaker reductions in rodent activity. The data partially confirmed this, with lower-density areas achieving higher composting participation and demonstrating slightly stronger negative correlation coefficients (reaching approximately -.6 by week 20) between household composting and rodent sightings compared to higher-density areas (-.5), consistent across multiple density metrics. This research establishes a framework for evaluating urban waste management strategies while acknowledging the limitations of using 311 requests as proxies for rodent activity. These preliminary findings can guide municipalities toward improved collection methods and more targeted approaches for measuring integrated pest management effectiveness across diverse urban neighborhoods. The identified patterns suggest that policy makers should implement neighborhood-specific waste management strategies rather than one-size-fits-all approaches across varied urban environments.