Following an unprecedented study of NYC’s commercial waste system, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to implement major reform of the system today, by creating an efficient, competitive zone system which will greatly reduce truck traffic and diesel emissions, raise recycling rates, address environmental injustice, and protect private sanitation workers. NYLPI and our partners in the Transform Don’t Trash NYC coalition look forward to partnering with the administration to move these reforms forward.

The administration’s new policy would create commercial waste zones throughout the city, each serviced by a private sanitation company that would be held to strict sustainability goals and labor standards. The announcement follows more than a year of study of problems in the commercial sanitation industry by the de Blasio administration. Reforms in this industry are key to accomplishing the city’s goal of zero waste by 2030, and improving public health and safety for all New Yorkers by greatly reducing the excessive number of miles driven on local streets by dangerous and polluting trucks.

Read the City’s press release here.

Read the Politico article here, the Waste360 coverage here, and the Crain’s article here.