Dive Brief:

• A New York City Council meeting about free enterprise and recycling diversion rates featured testimony about working conditions and the demands of the job from sanitation workers employed by private haulers.
• The workers testified that they felt they were treated like garbage or worse. According to Capitalnewyork.com, the companies did not respond to email or calls. Private haulers collect more than half of the trash in the city.
• An aspect of Mayor de Blasio’s OneNYC plan called for an examination into the commercial waste and recycling industry.

Dive Insight:

Workers addressed topics of wages; pay is often as low as $8.75, poor treatment by the companies they work for, little to no training and a barrage of safety risks that face the workers on every route. 

One topic of discussion calls for dividing the terrain and giving each contractor a zone. Those opposed say it will destroy the competitive market and eliminate smaller businesses.