Queens nabes to be proving ground for trash overhaul plan
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Several Western Queens neighborhoods will be home to the city’s long-awaited pilot program aimed at overhauling the city’s private waste industry. Photo by Liam Quigley
By Liam Quigley
Several Western Queens neighborhoods will get the city’s first taste of a long-awaited overhaul to New York City’s notorious private waste industry, city officials announced Tuesday.
Beginning this fall, business owners in Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights will pick one of three companies to take out their garbage as part of the pilot of a soon-to-be citywide program that advocates have clamored for for at least the past decade.
Together, the neighborhoods will combine to form what will be the city’s first Commercial Waste Zone.
Though the city handles most residential waste, every private business — from a local deli to Metro Mall — has to pay a separate, private company to take out their trash. After a major crackdown on mob ties in the private waste business in the 1990s, the industry again rose to infamy for labor abuses, general scandal and reckless driving that left – by some counts – 43 New Yorkers dead from 2010 to 2019.
The Commercial Waste Zone system will eventually divide the five boroughs into 20 waste zones, where vetted waste haulers will be assigned to pick up trash.
Created with the goal of making the industry safer and more eco-friendly, the law creating the system – which was heavily supported by now-Queens Borough President Donovan Richards when he was a member of the City Council – was passed in 2019 after labor, safe streets, and environmental justice advocates banded together to call out the ills of the private waste industry.
Though it was passed into law half a decade ago, the actual implementation of the system has been met with years of delays.
Despite the slow rollout, Richards celebrated the fact that the plan was finally moving forward.
“The implementation of commercial waste zones will be a game changer for our borough,” Richards said in a statement to the Eagle. “From drastically reducing truck traffic to supporting small contracting businesses to improving the safety of our streets, this pilot program is both innovative and necessary.”
Then-Councilmember Donovan Richards at a rally in support of waste reform in 2019. Richards, who now serves as borough president, helped to pass the 2019 law that created the Commercial Waste Zones announced by the city this week. Photo by Liam Quigley
The new system aims to cut down the miles traveled by private garbage trucks, which currently crisscross the city to make their pickups at businesses that can be miles apart. There are also emission reduction and environmental targets laid out as part of the plan.
According to the Adams administration, the new system will reduce the number of miles traveled by commercial carters by 50 percent, as required by the 2019 statute.
Carters will also be required to install back-up cameras, auxiliary exterior lighting, cross-over mirrors and systems for monitoring and recording GPS data in all of their trucks, according to the law.
The Sanitation Department said in a Tuesday release that it would require the carters to meet the vehicle safety rules but did not specify when they’d begin enforcement.
The scope of the chaos and danger in the private waste industry was exposed in a 2018 report by ProPublica, which included an account of one private waste hauler covering up the death of a worker it had been paying off of the books to help collect trash at night.
Under the city’s new rules, waste haulers that are given permission to work within any given Commercial Waste Zone will be required each year to provide proof that their workers had been given safety training. They will also be required to submit plans to show that they have sufficient staff to perform the work they’ve been awarded.
The Department of Sanitation has been made responsible for awarding the lucrative contracts and implementing the new zone system.
A map of the city’s soon-to-be implemented Commercial Waste Zones. Map via DSNY
The looming overhaul appears to have already sparked consolidation in the competitive industry.
Two Queens waste haulers — Mr. T Carting and Boro-Wide Recycling — merged in a 2022 joint venture to improve their chances of landing a contract. The new company is one of three that will cover the “Queens Central” zone this Fall. Basin Haulage and Waste Connections also earned a spot on the list.
The Eagle reached out to several of the companies awarded contracts in the pilot zone on Thursday. However, on Thursday afternoon, the DSNY sent out an email to the contracted companies warning them that they first have to consult the department before making any statements to the press.
“We are unable to speak on it at this time due to the DSNY,” a representative for one of the companies awarded a contract told The Eagle.
Advocates are eager to see the new zones put in place.
“This is a system that we maintain holds enormous promise,” said Justin Wood, who works as policy director at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “It’s a win-win-win for workers, communities, especially those with transfer stations, and for job creation and waste reduction.”
Wood said there’s a need for more transparency from the city as the new system is rolled out so that climate and waste reduction goals spelled out in the law which created the zones are met.
“Until we see the list of subcontracts and a really fleshed-out zero-waste plan for each zone and the incentives that customers would have to use those services, we don’t really know how robust that is,” Wood said. “A lot remains to be seen.”
A hearing on Queens’ zone implementation will be held virtually on March 7 at 10 a.m.
A full list of carters selected for Queens can be seen below.
The carters selected for the Queens Central District include Basin Haulage Inc., MRT BWR, Corp. and Waste Connections of New York, Inc.
The carters selected for the Queens Northeast District include Crown Waste Corp., MRT BWR, Corp. and Royal Waste Services, Inc.
The carters that will service Queens Southeast include Liberty Ashes, Inc., Royal Waste Services, Inc. and Recycle Track Systems NYC, LLC
MRT BWR, Corp., Royal Waste Services, Inc. and Waste Connections of New York, Inc. will service Queens West.
