Dive Brief:

• Representatives of the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) New York chapter are calling for an increased rate cap on private carter fees, which pay for removal of trade waste and recyclables for commercial customers. In their presentation to New York City’s Business and Integrity Commission, the local NWRA argued the need to address increased equipment, labor, and insurance costs.
• The organization called the cap an obsolete component of BIC oversight, noting that New York is the only city in the U.S. with such a restriction imposed on fees for commercial wastes and recyclables.
• Mike Hellstrom, the business manager and secretary treasurer of Laborers Local Union 108, said the local union supports a rate increase industry-wide and called on the BIC to abolish the cap altogether.

Dive Insight:

With evolving trends in services to reduce waste and increase recycling, the rate cap for carting service has all but disappeared.

"The rate cap is an antiquated vestige that was made to deal with problems of a prior generation. These issues no longer exist," said Thomas N. Toscano, NWRA chapter chair. "To change this industry for the future the rate cap needs to be eliminated, or at least raised beyond the historic 3% only when a crisis arises."

The private waste industry now collects and manages more than 75% of the commercial trade waste and recyclables produced by the city’s 225,000 plus commercial entities. In October, the Transform Don't Trash NYC coalition released a report which states that small businesses face faulty service, unfair pricing, and inadequate recycling from the city's private waste disposal companies.