An MTA inspector general report published Tuesday found one of the agency’s private waste contractors trashed hundreds of tons of cardboard and paper since 2019, leading to extra fees that were covered by taxpayers and riders.
The report says investigators found MTA employees routinely failed to sort recycling at more than 20 bus depots and repair facilities. And when recycling was properly sorted, the report found the contractor would regularly toss it in with the trash anyway and send it to landfills.
The report states the MTA has to pay the contractor for trash collection, but “will remove recyclable at no cost.” By trashing the recyclables, the report estimates, the MTA paid the company an additional $800,000 in fees.
The problem should have been caught, auditors said, because the garbage company’s own records showed that it suddenly began recycling less paper and cardboard in 2019, with volume dropping significantly and staying low through 2024.
The transit agency’s contractor, identified by public records as Action Carting, is one of the biggest private sanitation companies in New York City. It also has a checkered safety record.
The NYPD is investigating the July 8 death of a 54-year-old man who was run over by a garbage truck in the company’s garage in East New York.
An Action Carting driver struck and killed a cyclist in Brooklyn in 2017, renewing calls to break down the city into zones where only certain companies would be approved to collect commercial trash. The City Council passed legislation in 2019 establishing 20 "commercial waste zones,” and the sanitation department has since licensed Action Carting to operate in 15 of them.
MTA officials said the agency is reviewing its contract with Action Carting, and has retrained its own employees on sorting recycling. Action Carting representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
“Recycling at New York City Transit facilities is legally required, environmentally responsible, and financially beneficial to the MTA,” said Inspector General Daniel G. Cort. “While it is troubling that the agency and its contractor disregarded those obligations for years, I am pleased that the MTA has begun to implement some of our recommendations.”
Environmental advocates said the widespread failure to recycle threatens to further undermine public trust in recycling.
Eric Goldstein, New York City environment director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that the audit should raise red flags after Action was awarded the right to pick up commercial trash in 15 zones, the most allowed under the law.
“The city sanitation separtment needs to very carefully review both the terms of the contract and to assure compliance with the contract so that the mistakes that were exposed here are not repeated on a broader scale throughout the city,” Goldstein said.
Sanitation department spokesperson Vincent Gragnani wrote in a statement that the agency was reviewing the findings of the audit and that Action Carting had immediately disclosed the fatal crash at the company's garage earlier this month.
In a statement, MTA spokesperson Laura Cala-Rauch wrote that the transit agency takes its environmental responsibility seriously.
“The MTA is committed to environmentally conscious policies and practices across the agency,” she wrote. “We have directed the vendor to make changes to trash and recycling collection procedures, including mandating electronic billing with all the information necessary on weight tickets as part of their next contract, and are retraining employees to improve sorting of trash and recyclables at transit facilities.”
The findings of the MTA inspector general’s office were first reported by the Daily News. The oversight agency said that it will release a second audit looking into Action Carting’s performance and billing practices in the future.
