New commercial waste law could spare SE Queens from truck-clogged streets

Mayor Bill de Blasio signs the bill to increase regulations on the commercial waste industry. Photo courtesy of the Mayor’s Office.

By Victoria Merlino

The private garbage carting industry, which Southeast Queens residents say clog their streets and lower their air quality, will soon operate under various new restrictions, after Mayor Bill de Blasio signed regulations into law Wednesday. 

Last month, the City Council passed a bill to separate the city into commercial waste zones where only a handful of carting companies could operate. The law puts restrictions on the more than 90 largely unregulated companies that truck millions of tons of trash per year from restaurants and other businesses around the city to stations in Southeast Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The industry is separate from the city-run Department of Sanitation, which handles residential garbage.

Some drivers hit more than 1,000 stops per route, and critics said they often took dangerous shortcuts. They also questioned the industry’s ability to be environmentally sustainable. 

“Today’s bill signing doesn’t just mark a new day for commercial waste hauling,” de Blasio said in a statement. “It’s a new day for New York’s Green New Deal, showing that we can create good-paying jobs while drastically reducing pollution and emissions.”

The bill was championed by Queens and Brooklyn Councilmember Antonio Reynoso, the chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management.

“Under a commercial waste zones system, vehicle miles traveled will be drastically reduced, companies will be required to provide training to workers, and haulers will be incentivized to make critical investments in modern recycling, composting, and transfer station infrastructure,” he said in a statement. “The transformation of this industry will have life changing impacts for workers, community members, and our environment.”