Rats! Big trash compactor targets rodents, waste in downtown Olympia

Watch out, rats, because a giant trash compactor is coming to downtown Olympia.

The 30-yard contraption will be installed behind the Big Whiskey Saloon at Fifth Avenue and Franklin Street by the end of the year. The sealed container will replace all trash bins in the block’s intersecting alleyways.

That means less garbage juice leaking on the ground and attracting rats, for example. It also means no access for gulls and crows that pick through garbage when a container’s lid is left open.

“It’s just part of the ongoing attempt to get the downtown cleaner,” said Steve Cooper, who owns several downtown Olympia properties, including the Big Whiskey building. “Having a feeling of cleanliness starts to address the feeling of safety.”

The trash compactor is part of a city-led pilot project supported by the Parking and Business Improvement Area, a self-taxing district with about 435 downtown business owners.

Cooper, who regularly picks up garbage on his downtown lots, agreed to allow the trash compactor on his property.

“That’s a big plus for the whole block,” he said. “With it being well-lit later on in the year, it should feel safer for people taking their garbage out.”

City public works director Rich Hoey said the total project — including the compactor, electricity upgrade, lighting, design and construction — will cost about $180,000. A completion date has not been determined.

Hoey said the compactor will need to be emptied about once a month and will make trash collection more efficient on the block.

“Once we get some experience with the operation, we will look at the opportunity to open up use to other nearby businesses on adjacent blocks,” Hoey told The Olympian.

As for the rat population, the trash compactor won’t eliminate the pests, but its design will deny them a source for food and shelter. Rats also pose a health risk through bacterial contamination from their excrement.

Steve Venables, owner of Venables Pest Management, said the rat population in Thurston County has increased in recent years with the spread of the black rat, commonly called the roof rat. Unlike the common Norway rats that typically stay and burrow in downtown Olympia, the roof rats have expanded their territory by traveling across tree limbs and power lines.

“They survive extremely well around human beings,” Venables said of rats. “Human beings are its habitat.”

Venables, who has 30 years of experience in the pest control business, said the trash compactor is an effective idea for deterring rats, or at least keeping their colonies under control.

“Rats are found just about anywhere there’s a food source,” he said. “If rats can’t get in and they can’t eat, then they can’t breed.”

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Rats! Big trash compactor targets rodents, waste in downtown Olympia."