June 14, 2018
To:

Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, DSNY
Commissioner Daniel Brownell, BIC
Justin Bland, DSNY
Arcadis Consulting
Public Works Partners

Cc:

Council Sanitation Chair Antonio Reynoso
Jonnel Doris, Mayor’s Office on MWBEs

Dear Commissioners:
Thank you for considering the input of New York City’s many small-scale organics, recycling,
and waste reduction organizations as you finalize the commercial waste zone implementation
plan for New York City. As discussed previously, we believe the current commercial waste
system fails to accurately measure waste, facilitate diversion and waste reduction practices by
businesses, and discourages participation by innovative minority- and woman-owned
businesses. Below are some details on these problems, and our specific recommendations for
how the new system can address them through a rigorous RFP process for waste collection,
recycling, and diversion services in each zone.
Problem 1: Current recycling services lack the flexibility required by small businesses.
Pricing and space constraints prevent many businesses - especially small businesses -- from
accessing organics and other recycling services. For example, many commercial haulers will
only collect organic waste for recycling in 64-gallon or 32-gallon toters, which are too large for
many small food businesses, which cannot fill with the small volume of material they generate
on a daily basis. Other small businesses find that small amounts of glass, metal, plastic, and
even cardboard are sometimes commingled with putrescible waste when collected by
commercial haulers.
Solution 1: Enable “microhaulers” to provide organics and other recycling services to
small business generators.
NYC has a number of established and start-up “microhaulers”1 with the potential to collect and
aggregate recyclable organics, textiles, electronics, and other materials such as glass and
plastic containers via bicycles or small vehicles, which can reduce collection prices, reduce
unnecessary truck miles, and make scaled recycling services accessible to thousands of small
businesses. The potential price reduction is inversely proportional to the size of the generator the smallest generators receive the most benefit from micro-scale services, while larger
1

Small haulers transporting less than 2,000 lbs of material in a single trip are currently exempt from DEC
Part 364 rules governing transport of waste.

 generators are better able to utilize larger-scale containers such as totes and compactors
collected by larger commercial hauling trucks.
Microhaulers have local expertise in the neighborhoods they serve, and can rapidly scale up as
organics recycling capacity grows. Wherever possible, microhaulers can bring organics to
small-scale composting sites and facilities, and microhaulers can also partner with commercial
haulers to have consolidated material hauled to larger facilities. In this microhauler-commercial
hauler partnership model, micro haulers can efficiently do the task of collecting small volumes of
organics from lots of small businesses (a task that many commercial haulers are not equipped
to complete, because of the high cost of stopping for such a small quantity of material), and can
consolidate into a few locations where commercial hauling trucks can easily and efficiently make
collections.
Such aggregated collection practices also facilitate containerization of organic waste, which can
reduce vermin, frequency of truck collections, and associated noise and traffic congestion, as
outlined in the American Institute of Architects Zero Waste Design Guidelines.
Problem 2: Commercial waste is not accurately measured or priced in NYC.
The current waste system does not enable customers or the City to accurately measure
commercial waste, or gauge the cost of waste services. Only a small fraction of generators
receive regular waste stream surveys, and the quality, timing, and uniformity of these surveys is
not meaningfully regulated or enforced.
Some commercial haulers have scales on their trucks, and can conduct surveys by weighing
material as it is collected. Other surveys are simple counts of the bags set at the curb on a
single night or over the course of a handful of days or weeks. Pricing estimates and
assumptions are made based on these observations, but surveys of this kind do nothing to
characterize the waste stream, identify the portion of organics that compose waste streams or
provide feedback that can be used to reduce contamination and increase recycling, sourceseparated organic waste collection, and other training and practices at the generator site.
Secondly, a large fraction of New York City businesses are tenants of commercial landlords who
do not directly negotiate or pay for waste services. This weakens the economic incentives for
many generators to reduce waste. For example, a commercial office tenant does not realize
any savings by participating in food scrap composting, or by reducing their waste stream. In
other cases, commercial landlords pass charges for waste services on to their tenants at
marked-up rates that far exceed the trade waste rate cap, and business tenants and subtenants
have little ability to achieve fair and transparent prices.

 Solution 2: Integrate independent waste auditors and brokers into the zone system.
a) Surveys and customer education are best performed by auditors who have a degree of
independence from the hauler contracted to remove waste and recyclables, as the haulers`
incentive is to maximize charges while independent auditors can help customers reduce waste.
b) Baseline and follow-up waste stream surveys should be mandatory for all commercial
generators. These surveys should be tailored to the type of waste stream (restaurant, retail,
office, manufacturing), unique space constraints, and collection needs of each business, and
each generator’s employees should be engaged in reduction and diversion strategies.
c) Waste surveying and diversion plans are best performed by auditors who are financially
independent of the hauling companies paid to collect waste. Teams of independent, certified
auditors could be funded by the City (revenue for this could come from franchise fees under the
new system), or through mandatory subcontracts with haulers selected to serve each zone.
d) Waste audit data can be a valuable tool to help determine diversion goals for businesses. By
auditing waste and collecting information on baseline generation, businesses can build tangible
targets for reduction of waste sent to landfill, and future audits can compare results to the
baseline.
e) The city should adopt regulations preventing commercial landlords and brokers from
charging commercial tenants for waste services at prices that exceed the rate cap established in
any zone.

Problem 3: Thousands of tons of edible food and usable goods from NYC businesses
are landfilled each year, despite an urgent local need for these goods.
While waste reduction via donation and re-use is the highest and best use of unwanted food,
furniture, textiles, and other materials, these efforts are currently sporadic, underfunded, and
lack coordination with the commercial waste system.
Solution 3: Integrate food rescue and other reuse organizations into the zone system.
Contracted waste haulers and waste auditors in each zone should be required to submit plans
to coordinate with local food rescue and re-use organizations, and to promote these services to
customers as the most cost effective and sustainable way to discard unwanted items. Donated
food and goods should be tracked and counted toward diversion goals for each zone, and also
used to provide tax receipts to business donors when possible. Many reuse organizations in
NYC already provide this tax receipt service.
Funding is vital to scaling up rescue and re-use operations, which have very few full time staff, a
shortage of dedicated space, and a heavy reliance on volunteer labor. NYC’s commercial

 waste zone RFP should require haulers to partner with reuse organizations in each zone, and
provide funding to scale up and promote these efforts and create local jobs. For example, Los
Angeles’ franchise agreements require each commercial hauler to contribute $1,000 per 100
customers to a community benefits fund administered by the City. Funding at similar levels
could help NYC re-use, food rescue, and recycling organizations with outreach, education, and
operational capacity.
With increased awareness about waste and improved recovery, businesses will learn more
about their waste streams and can begin to shift purchasing behavior, saving money in the long
run and reducing the need to haul material to landfills.

Problem 4: Minority- and Woman-Owned Enterprises (MWBEs) face barriers to entry in
the current commercial waste system.
The owners and executives in NYC’s commercial waste industry are predominantly white men,
many of whom inherited their businesses. The City’s Sanitation Department has also
consistently failed to meet MWBE contracting targets.
Many of the city’s innovative microhaulers, community-based recyclers, reuse organizations,
and waste reduction consultants are led by women and people of color who have difficulty
securing financing and face barriers to entry such as high licensing fees, a pricing structure that
favors traditional landfilling operations, and sparse legal and technical support in state and city
contracting processes.
Solution 4: Include minimum MWBE subcontracting goals in the RFP for the commercial
zone system.
City agencies including DSNY, the NYC Economic Development Corporation, and Small
Business Services should actively facilitate collaboration between commercial haulers and
MWBEs through networking events, grants, access to capital and public-private partnerships.
A list of all the MWBEs that provide products and services related to the commercial hauling
and waste management industry should be compiled and presented as an attachment to the
RFP itself. This list should be broken down by zone if possible/useful.
The use of waivers for MWBE goals should be granted very sparingly, if at all.
DSNY and other relevant agencies should offer legal and technical workshops and support well
in advance of the release of the RFP to give MWBEs and small businesses time to prepare
materials.

 Specific Recommendations:
Regardless of the number and design of zones, and total number of haulers serving each zone,
the City can set rigorous standards for diversion, waste audits, and recycling services that will
facilitate effective partnerships between commercial haulers and the City’s microhaulers, waste
reduction experts, and reuse organizations, while creating high-quality, local jobs.
The RFP for waste zones can address many of the problems outlined above, and should
include:
●

A requirement that each customer within a zone participate in a baseline waste stream
characterization and follow-up surveys by a city-certified waste auditor following the start
of service under the zone collection.

●

A diversion goal for the businesses within each commercial zone commensurate with the
City’s goal of reducing disposed commercial waste by 90% by 2030. To accurately
measure diversion, food and goods donated for reuse as diversion and waste reduction
through on-site processing (such as on-site composting or anaerobic digestion) must be
included in baseline and ongoing surveys. The commercial hauler(s) serving each zone
should be held accountable to annual diversion goals through contractually enforceable
penalties and/or incentives, as they are in other cities with commercial waste franchise
systems.

●

A requirement that the commercial hauler or haulers selected to serve each zone
contribute a minimum funding level to local, City-approved food rescue and re-use
organizations and actively partner with these organizations to tailor waste reduction
efforts within the zone, and to jointly educate customers within the zone about the
financial and environmental benefits of donation and reuse.

●

A requirement that the commercial hauler or haulers selected for each zone offer organic
waste recycling services to all businesses within a zone. Because of the potential
efficiencies created through partnerships with microhaulers, the commercial hauler(s)
should promote or offer microhauling partner services for the collection and processing,
or aggregation, of organics by local, City-approved microhaulers.

●

Minimum goals for MWBE subcontractor participation in line with the City’s goals for
DSNY and other agencies.

●

The City should assess all subcontracts prior to approval, ensuring that they meet
various standards set in the RFP and commercial hauler contracts (living wage
standards, utilization of qualified recycling and disposal facilities, etc.)

●

Minimum and maximum rates per pound or by per-pickup volume that haulers (including
microhaulers) can charge customers. Setting a minimum rate is important to avoid

 scenarios in which microhauling and local recycling could become means to undermine
rates and labor standards set for primary contractors in a zone system.
Under a system with multiple commercial waste zones, microhaulers, waste auditors, and
reuse/recycling organizations working as subcontractors might be able to subcontract with
multiple commercial haulers in multiple zones, depending on their capacity, efficiency, and the
flexibility of their operations. (Similarly, we anticipate that commercial haulers will be able to bid
to serve multiple zones, with some restrictions.) For example, various commercial haulers
serving different zones could contract with a microhauler or consultant to function as a
broker/auditor on various film locations; micro-haulers with bicycle collection operations might
be able to work as subcontractors in multiple zones, and food rescue organizations that pair
generators with local donors could potentially serve multiple zones.
We envision a system in which microhaulers, food rescue, and reuse organizations may be paid
directly by customers while also receiving payment from selected commercial haulers while
working as subcontractors and partners with these haulers. For example, a microhauler offering
small-scale organics recycling might develop joint marketing materials with the commercial
hauler for a given zone, and bill participating customers directly for organics service in
accordance with volume-based or weight-based minimum and maximum rate standards set
under the waste zone system.
Finally, it is strongly strongly desirable that the City use this reform to ensure a more robust
“pay-as-you-throw” price structure in which businesses implementing waste reduction and
diversion practices can realize savings by reducing landfill/garbage service from their
commercial hauler.

Yours,
Robert Lee, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine
Sandra Nurse and Renée Peperone, BK ROT
Emellie O’Brien, Earth Angel
Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli, Common Ground Compost
Laura Rosenshine, The Foodprint Group
Leah Alexander and Myron Alexander, Owareco
Alireza Vaziri, RoHo Compost
Tinia Pina, Re-Nuble
Jacquelyn Ottman, J. Ottman Consulting, Inc.
Dior St. Hillaire, Green Feen
Ana Martinez de Luco, Sure We Can
Shien Ru Tsao, Commit to Green
Vandra Thorburn, Vokashi
The Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board
The Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board