NYC Commercial Waste Zones rollout: which zones are live, what's next, and when

How a zone goes live

Local Law 199 of 2019 created the program. It has the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) set two dates for each zone by rule: an implementation start date and a final implementation date. The time between is the transition period. DSNY calls it the sign-up period. The dates are written in 16 RCNY § 20-02(b). On DSNY’s schedule, a zone is fully implemented the day after its final implementation date.

Every phase, with its dates

The sign-up periods are the implementation start and final implementation dates in 16 RCNY § 20-02(b), set by DSNY rules adopted from 2024 to 2026. The phases and go-live dates are from DSNY’s rollout schedule. BIC’s notices to licensees give the same go-live dates for Lower Manhattan and for Staten Island and Midtown South. The zone codes are from DSNY’s zone dataset on NYC Open Data.

Two notes on the schedule:

• Queens West moved a year. A 2025 rule set it for April 1 to May 31, 2026, with Lower Manhattan. A rule effective May 3, 2026 removed those dates. A rule effective October 16, 2026 set April 1 to May 31, 2027.
• Phases 9 and 10 have no rule yet. DSNY’s April 2026 request for proposals, for one more carter each in Midtown North and Manhattan Southwest, estimated those two zones at “Summer-Fall 2027.” That is a procurement estimate, not a schedule.

Which zone is a stop in? Zones follow community districts. Midtown is split at 37th Street. Roosevelt Island is in Queens West. Businesses on Central Park West are in Manhattan West. DSNY’s Find Your Zone map looks it up by address.

What changes for a hauler when a zone goes live

When sign-up opens

• Only an awardee for the zone may sign a new contract, or renew an existing one, with a business there (Admin. Code § 16-1002(e)(1)).
• A licensee that is not an awardee may keep serving a customer under a contract signed before that date, until the final implementation date. Through the sign-up period it still follows BIC’s rules, including BIC’s citywide rate cap.
• Awardees report their customer register to DSNY daily during the sign-up period (16 RCNY § 20-62).

When the zone is fully implemented

• Only zone awardees, the five citywide awardees for dumpsters and compactors of 10 cubic yards and up, and the DSNY-approved designated carters who subcontract for them may collect commercial waste in the zone. That includes recycling, organics and roll-off containers of commercial waste.
• Any contract between a business in the zone and a carter that is not an awardee is considered terminated (Local Law 199, § 22).
• BIC says unauthorized commercial waste work in a live zone carries civil penalties of $10,000 per violation. DSNY and BIC both issue summonses.
• DSNY assigns an awardee, at the maximum allowable rate, to any business that did not sign. The business then has 30 days to pick a different awardee in the zone.
• For designated carters, BIC’s rate cap, quarterly customer register and standard-bill rules stop applying in that zone. DSNY’s zone rules take their place. In zones not yet live, BIC’s rules still apply.

Outside the program: construction and demolition debris, fill, medical waste, electronic waste, textiles, landscapers’ yard waste, one-time on-call bulk removal, grease, paper collected for shredding, and waste collected by a micro-hauler.

Under the zone rules

• Maximum rates. An awardee may not charge above the maximum rates and fees in its agreement with DSNY for that zone (16 RCNY § 20-21). Recycling and organics must be discounted against refuse. DSNY’s template agreement adjusts the maximum rates every July 1, starting July 1, 2025. DSNY says the maximums take effect only once the zone’s rollout begins and the customer signs a new written contract.
• Service levels. The default is refuse two days a week, recycling one day, and organics one day for designated covered establishments. Since October 16, 2026, an awardee may not refuse a customer who needs less (16 RCNY § 20-22).
• Waste surveys. A customer on flat billing needs a waste survey within 180 days of the first flat invoice. A survey done in the year before the agreement can count. Overpayments that the first survey shows are refunded within 60 days of it (16 RCNY § 20-27(c)).
• Reporting. After the final implementation date, awardees send DSNY customer-register changes weekly and collection route data monthly. Each February 1, they report the prior year’s rates for each customer, by waste stream (16 RCNY § 20-62).
• Customers in more than one zone. A multi-zone contract follows BIC’s rules and rate cap for sites in zones not yet live, and the zone rules and maximums for sites in live zones.

Get ready: a checklist

1. Put every customer location in its zone, with its phase and dates.
2. Brooklyn North and Upper Manhattan: sign-up closes November 30, 2026.
3. In zones where you are not an awardee, list each contract and the date it ends. Sign or renew nothing there once sign-up opens.
4. In zones where you are an awardee or designated carter, load the zone’s maximum rates by effective date, sign written agreements, schedule surveys for flat-billed customers, and set up DSNY reporting.
5. Keep filing BIC customer registers for customers in zones not yet live. The next one, for October 1 to December 31, is due January 31, 2027.
6. Watch DSNY’s rollout page and the NYC Rules site for the Phase 9 and 10 rules.

How RouteNow handles it

RouteNow keeps each zone’s maximum rates by effective date. As each zone goes live, CheckNow checks every service against its zone’s schedule, and BicNow audits the BIC filings for the customers still under BIC’s rules.