Waste stream surveys under NYC's Commercial Waste Zone rules: when one is due, and how weigh-ins back it up

What a waste survey is

The zone rules call it a “waste survey.” BIC’s customer register calls it a “waste stream survey.” DSNY’s page for businesses says “waste audit.”

Under § 20-27(c), a survey measures the average amount of waste collected from a customer, by volume or by weight, broken out by waste stream.

It is the basis of a flat bill. A flat bill must show, by stream, the estimated volume or weight and its charge. It must also state how the estimate was made and the date of the most recent survey (§ 20-27(a)(6)(ii)).

Do not confuse it with a “commercial waste generation audit” (§ 20-29, adopted 2021). That audit is done by a BIC-registered trade waste broker, and the awardee provides or reimburses it under its Zero Waste Plan. Local Law 199 of 2019, which created the zones, requires awardees to offer third party waste audit services to all customers. It is a different requirement with a different purpose.

When one is due

Only for flat billing. The rule applies “if an awardee utilizes a ‘flat’ billing method for a customer, whether based on weight or on volume.”

The first survey. It is due no later than 180 calendar days after the date of the first invoice that uses a flat billing method. A survey the awardee did no earlier than one year before entering the customer’s agreement can count. Before November 8, 2025 the deadline was 90 days. Older material may still say 90.

Who may do it. The awardee, a trade waste broker, or another third party.

When a customer asks. The awardee must perform another survey within 90 calendar days of the request. It does not have to provide more than two surveys at no cost in any 12-month period.

No fixed cycle. The April 2025 amendment removed a requirement that surveys be done every year. The current text sets no repeat schedule.

Small streams. If the awardee and the customer agree that the customer produces less than one cubic yard or less than 100 pounds of a stream per billing period, that stream needs no survey (§ 20-27(f)).

Where it applies. The zone rules take effect zone by zone, on DSNY’s rollout schedule. Outside an implemented zone, BIC says a customer on a flat or average fee is entitled to a waste stream survey at no charge.

What the survey must do

1. Notice first. Before it starts, tell the customer in writing when it will run, and that the customer may take part by monitoring the waste collected.
2. The period. 30 calendar days, or four consecutive collections of each stream, whichever is longer. If 30 days would mean measuring a stream more than eight times, it still runs 30 days, on varying days of the week, in every week, with no more than eight measurements. Different streams may use different 30-day periods.
3. Free. No cost to the customer.
4. The form. One DSNY prescribes or approves. Ask DSNY’s Bureau of Commercial Waste which form it accepts.
5. Send and keep. Record it and send it to the customer within 10 calendar days of completion. Keep a copy for five years.
6. True. A false or misleading survey is barred (§ 20-27(g)).

Scales (§ 20-27(h)). They must be accurate to within five percent. They may read in 5, 10 or 20 pound steps, or steps DSNY approves. Weight is net of the can, container or dumpster. If someone else weighs for you, their scale’s accuracy is your responsibility.

How the survey sets the bill

All future invoices must be based on the most recently completed survey.

After the initial survey, any overpayment it shows for the time before it was completed must be reimbursed within 60 calendar days of completion. Later surveys require no reimbursement. No survey lets you go back and bill for more.

Rounding (§ 20-27(e)) works per stream, per billing period:

• Under 1 cubic yard or 100 pounds may be rounded up to 1 yard or 100 pounds.
• Above that, 0.5 yard or more past the last whole yard (or 50 pounds or more past the last 100) may be rounded up.
• If you round up, you must also round down when it is under the half.

Turning weigh-ins into a month

The rule says to measure the average. It does not say how to turn an average pickup into a month. The usual arithmetic is:

average pounds a pickup × pickups a week × 4.33 = pounds a month

4.33 is 52 weeks divided by 12 months, rounded. It is a convention, not a number in the rule.

To bill in cubic yards, divide by your pounds-per-yard factor. Section 20-27 does not set one. Use the same factor every time, because the invoice has to state the method.

A worked example

Everything here is made up.

A restaurant has trash picked up three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is flat billed for 12 cubic yards a month. The hauler converts at 150 pounds a yard.

1. Notice. The hauler sends written notice of the start date and the customer’s right to monitor.
2. The period. Three pickups a week for 30 days is about 13 collections, more than eight. So the survey runs 30 days and weighs eight pickups, spread across the three days, at least one in every week.
3. The weights, net of the containers: 115, 130, 105, 125, 120, 110, 135 and 120 pounds. That is 960 pounds, or 120 pounds a pickup on average.
4. The month. 120 × 3 × 4.33 = 1,558.8 pounds.
5. In yards. 1,558.8 ÷ 150 = 10.39 yards. That is under half a yard past 10, so if the hauler rounds, it rounds down to 10. (Billed in pounds, 1,558.8 is 58.8 past 1,500 and could round up to 1,600.)
6. The bill. Billed 12, measured 10. Future invoices rest on 10 yards. At a made-up $20 a yard, the old bill ran $40 a month over the measured stream. Because this is the initial survey, that overpayment must be reimbursed within 60 days.
7. Paperwork. The survey goes to the customer within 10 days and is kept five years. The invoice shows 10 yards, the method and the survey date.

A quarter later, routine weigh-ins of the same service read 140, 150, 145 and 145 pounds. That is 145 pounds a pickup. 145 × 3 × 4.33 = 1,883.55 pounds, or about 12.56 yards. The stream has grown, but the bill cannot follow it backwards. To bill on a new number, run a new survey the same way. If weigh-ins fall instead, the customer can ask for one, due within 90 days.

The BIC register’s survey question

BIC trade waste licensees file a customer register each quarter, covering all their customers in New York City, unless BIC grants an exemption. Each row has one column, WASTE STREAM SURVEY CONDUCTED, answered Yes or No. Each stream on the row also reports a monthly amount collected and a billing method, Flat Rate or Actual.

BIC’s template gives the Yes/No choices but does not define a Yes. BIC’s directive says a register must be complete and accurate.

So treat a Yes as a statement you can back up:

• Hold the survey record behind it: dated, with the notice and the copy sent.
• The rule surveys by stream, but the register asks once per row. Know which streams your Yes covers.
• Weigh-ins in the quarter you file show that the monthly amount still matches what the customer puts out. The rule does not require them. They are the cheapest proof that the survey still holds, and a clear signal when it is time for a new one.

Where RouteNow fits

WeighNow lists every weigh-in by day and route. By route and stream, it shows who is being weighed and who never is. CheckNow turns a service’s weigh-ins into the month, in the bill’s unit, and checks that month against the bill and the zone’s maximum rate.