If you were designing a way to collect commercial waste — that is, garbage from businesses — you could hardly come up with something worse than our current system. Today, in my district, 39 different waste haulers are collecting waste from businesses within a single zip code. These overlapping and inefficient truck routes cause unnecessary emissions, noise, traffic, and safety hazards on our local streets.
Recycling requirements for these haulers are very weak, so New York City lags far behind other cities for diversion, recycling, or composting rates in the commercial sector. The same is true for labor standards. As a result, many waste haulers cut corners when paying and training workers who have some of the most dangerous jobs in the city.
You might think the current system would at least help small businesses through price competition, but in fact, the opposite is true. A recent study by New York City found that on average, small businesses pay 38 percent more for waste services than larger corporations, and typically don’t receive incentives or discounts for taking the trouble to sort their recyclable waste from garbage.
Finally, a grossly disproportionate share of commercial waste from across the city is trucked into our neighboring Brooklyn communities of Williamburg and Bushwick, Sunset Park, and East New York — predominantly communities of color — only to be trucked back out of the city on its way to landfills.
To read the full story, visit http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/39/40/dtg-trashzone-counterpoint-lander-2016-09-30-bk.html.