New York City’s overhaul of its commercial waste collection program will be pushed back until the second half of 2024, Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Wednesday morning, delaying reform of an industry long criticized for its inefficiency and mistreatment of workers.

Speaking at a City Council oversight hearing, Tisch said the timeline established under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, which included an initial rollout of the program by early 2023, was “wildly unrealistic.”

The city will instead roll out a pilot program in one section of the city in late 2024.

“Perhaps it was optimistic, but it wasn’t realistic,” Tisch said during the hearing. She noted that the city had to go through procurement for 65 contracts.

Commercial waste reform has been a long-standing battle in the city, with the groundwork for an overhaul dating back to de Blasio’s first term. Advocates have raised environmental concerns and pushed for safer conditions for workers and more traffic safety.

At least 43 people died and 107 others were injured in crashes involving commercial garbage trucks during a nine-year period beginning in 2010, according to a 2021 city report.

Under the new plan, there will be a maximum of three carters per zone, down from the dozens that currently pass through some city neighborhoods.

Tisch said capping the number of haulers at three per zone would still create enough competition to offset any potential for exorbitant price increases on small businesses that receive the trash pickup.

She added that the city needed time to ensure a smooth rollout of the program.

The delay did not sit well with some officials.

“We’re still three years away from implementing it citywide. That is an extremely slow timeline,” said Councilmember Lincoln Restler of north Brooklyn. “We have suffered meaningful delays, many prior to your arrival as commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, but delays all the same that undermine the worker justice, environmental justice goals of this law.”

The zone for the pilot program in 2024 has not yet been determined, Tisch said.

The full commercial waste overhaul will be phased in across 20 zones over the course of two years, starting with the pilot.

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who as a councilmember in 2019 sponsored the commercial waste zone bill that became law, said any conversation about cost needed to account for safety concerns.

“Workers weren’t wearing safety vests, they had to buy their own safety vests,” Reynoso said. “Workers were getting paid off the books. Workers were dying and companies weren’t acknowledging it. Trucks had no breaks.”

“That's why prices were low. This legislation is specifically aimed to start addressing all those issues, and that doesn’t come for free,” he said. “It doesn’t.”