With the city preparing reforms for the commercial waste carting industry, the Transform Don’t Trash NYC Coalition of labor and environmental justice groups released a report today calling attention to how private trash trucks disproportionately harm air quality in a few specific low-income communities of color [PDF].
The report, “Clearing the Air,” shows the high concentration of asthma-inducing pollutants at truck-heavy areas in the South Bronx and north and southwest Brooklyn, as well as inside the trucks themselves. To combat those dangerous emissions, the coalition is calling on the city to not only pursue “zone-based” commercial waste collection, but to further incentivize the use of clean-fuel technologies, barges, and trains.
More than 250 private carting companies handle commercial waste across the city (residential and government waste is collected by DSNY). But the city’s current commercial waste policies allow private carting companies to contract with businesses anywhere in the city, resulting in vast inefficiencies.
Last month, the city announced plans to shift the commercial waste collection to a zone-based system over the next six years. A report from the city’s Department of Sanitation and Business Integrity Commission released concurrently with the announcement found that zone-based collection would cut private carriers’ total annual miles travelled by 49 to 69 percent, or between 11.27 and 15.64 million miles per year.
To read the full article, visit Streetsblog NYC