Blaz moves vs. waste-ful trash rules

Legislation that will transform the city’s private waste-hauling industry was signed by Mayor de Blasio on Wednesday.

The reforms are the first significant changes to the industry since the city implemented measures to root out organized crime from commercial waste pickup in the 1990s.

The overhaul is intended to improve safety for workers and the public, as well as cut greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants from garbage trucks that currently zigzag haphazardly across the city. “We’re here today to celebrate fixing something that was profoundly broken,” de Blasio said.

While the Sanitation Department picks up residential trash, the city has an open market for the collection of waste from private businesses, so dozens of different carters may serve a single neighborhood.

The routes are long, which advocates for the reforms say risks safety. Private carters were responsible for 26 fatal crashes between 2010 and fall 2018.

One of the bills signed by the mayor requires the city to establish commercial waste zones where up to three carters will collect commercial trash. Up to five carters will also be allowed to operate citywide to pick up large containers of waste brought to a transfer station.

Another bill would boost enforcement at the Business Integrity Commission, created in the 1990s to eliminate organized crime and corruption from the trade waste industry, among other markets.