Business Integrity Commission Revokes Sanitation Salvage’s License to Operate on NYC Streets

Send this rogue carting company to the scrap heap: The city has finally revoked trash hauler Sanitation Salvage’s permit.

On Friday, the Business Integrity Commission used its “emergency suspension” power to pull the license of the politically connected Bronx company — which was connected to 58 collisions since March 2016, including two fatalities in a six-month period — after city agents saw an unlicensed employee driving one of the company’s dump trucks while his coworkers got pizza, according to the Daily News.

Mayoral spokesperson Eric Phillips confirmed the news on Twitter.

The city’s actions are long overdue.

In May, ProPublica revealed that company employee Sean Spence and the company had lied to police about the identity of the person he struck and killed in November. Spence initially claimed Mouctar Diallo, 21, was a “homeless man.” Diallo was in fact an off-the-books Sanitation Salvage employee.

The ProPublica investigation led to immediate calls to the city from elected officials and advocates to revoke the company’s license. The commission took three months to act, and even then only took action against Spence, banning him from driving carting trucks.

With Friday’s announcement, the Department of Sanitation will take over Sanitation Salvage’s 6,000 clients for two weeks to allow customers to find other carters. The city will assist the company’s 87 employees in finding new work, the Daily News said.

Sanitiation Salvage’s owners — the politically connected Squitieri family — can appeal the license revocation. If they do, a hearing will be held next week.

The BIC’s decision to revoke Sanitation Salvage’s license marks an aggressive new front against carting companies, who have killed at least 43 people in NYC since 2010 and regularly flout labor regulations. Advocates from the labor-aligned Transform Don’t Trash coalition, which is pushing for citywide carting reforms, celebrated the news.

“Companies like Sanitation Salvage should not be doing business in this city, and BIC made the right decision to revoke their license,” said Teamsters Local 813 President Sean Campbell. “For years, private carters thought no one would hold them accountable and they would get away with dangerous practices.”