Services
Office Waste and Recycling Management
Your cleaning crew sorts the waste; the legal liability stays with you and your building. New York City requires commercial businesses to source-separate paper, cardboard, metal, glass, plastic and beverage cartons, to label every container by material type, and to post signage in both collection and storage areas. Fines run $50–$400 per violation.
This is one of the few areas where a cleaning contract touches a genuine regulatory obligation, and almost nobody in the industry explains it. Here is the responsibility split, which is the thing people actually need.
| Task | Tenant | Building / agent | Cleaning contractor | Licensed carter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source separation at the point of disposal | Liable | Liable | Executes | — |
| Container labelling by material type | Liable | Liable | Advises | — |
| Posting required signage | Liable | Liable | — | — |
| Moving waste to compactor or dock | — | Oversees | Performs | — |
| Set-out and off-site collection | — | Coordinates | Not permitted without a BIC licence | Performs |
| Carter contract and payment | Often | Often | — | — |
| Recordkeeping and contract retention | Liable | Liable | — | Provides |
The Licence Question Worth Asking
Off-site commercial waste hauling in New York City requires a Business Integrity Commission trade waste licence. Most janitorial companies do not hold one, and do not need to — they stage waste to the building's compactor or loading dock, which is entirely legal. The problem is vendors who imply they “handle your waste” without clarifying which of the two they mean. Ask directly: do you hold a BIC trade waste licence, or does your scope end at the compactor? Either answer is fine. Vagueness is not.
Commercial Waste Zones Are Changing Who Can Collect From You
Under Local Law 199 of 2019 the city is divided into twenty commercial waste zones, each served by three authorised carters plus five citywide carters for loading-dock and compactor containers. The rollout is phased by zone. Businesses that fail to sign with an authorised carter in their sign-up window are assigned one at the maximum allowable rate.
If you are in Lower Manhattan, Midtown South, Upper Manhattan, Manhattan Northeast or Manhattan West, check your zone's implementation date — the full rollout schedule is here.
What Is Included
- Waste and recycling collected from every point and staged to the building's compactor or dock
- Source separation maintained per NYC requirements — paper, cardboard, metal, glass, plastic, cartons
- Liners replaced; bins cleaned on a rotation
- Container labelling advice and signage placement guidance
- Cardboard broken down and staged for collection
- Organics stream handling where the building operates one
- Confidential shred bins moved to collection point — contents never handled
- Reporting when contamination or co-mingling is observed at the source
What Is Not Included Unless You Ask for It
This list exists on purpose. Almost every dispute between an office and its cleaning company traces back to something one party assumed was in scope and the other did not.
- Off-site hauling — requires a BIC trade waste licence held by your carter
- Carter contracting, negotiation or payment
- Regulated medical waste, sharps and pharmaceutical waste
- Construction and demolition debris hauling
- Electronic waste collection and certified data destruction
- Bulk furniture removal
Get This Scoped and Priced
Tell us the space and we will send back a written scope exhibit, a fixed price, and the exclusions — in one document, usually within two business days.
Waste & Recycling Management — Get a Price
Written scope and fixed price, usually within two business days.
We reply to every request. If your building needs a Certificate of Insurance or vendor registration, we handle that paperwork before the first night.
Waste & Recycling Management: Frequently Asked Questions
Do you take the trash away?
We take it out of your suite and to the building's compactor or loading dock, source-separated and labelled. Off-site hauling is done by your BIC-licensed carter — that is a licensed activity and a different business. Any cleaning company that blurs this line is worth a second look.
Who gets fined if we get recycling wrong?
The business and the building, not the cleaning contractor. Fines run $50 to $400 per violation. That is precisely why the labelling and signage obligations are worth taking seriously even though someone else physically does the sorting.
Does our office need to compost?
Most standalone offices fall below the commercial organics thresholds, which are keyed to food-service square footage, hotel room count, retail food store size and event attendance. But a building with a ground-floor restaurant or an office with a real cafeteria may well be covered, and the legislation has been expanding. The threshold table is here.
Ready for a Cleaning Contract You Can Actually Read?
Send us your square footage and how many nights you need. You get a written scope, a fixed monthly price, and the SLA in the same document — usually within two business days.