The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) and New Yorkers for Responsible Waste Management (NYRWM) announced an agreement to realign all of New York City’s commercial waste and recycling service companies under the organizational structure of the NWRA New York City Chapter.

The realignment of NWRA and NYRWM is possible by a combination of new national leadership of NWRA and a resolution adopted by the NWRA NYC Chapter in May 2018 that endorsed maintaining the open market system and rejecting Mayor Bill de Blasio’s zone franchising proposal.

“I am pleased that the entirety of New York City’s waste services industry will realign with our New York City Chapter. Our industry is stronger when we work together. We look forward to supporting our new members and advocating for solutions affecting our industry,” said NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith in a statement.

The goal of this realignment is to unify and strengthen the industry’s voice and advocacy efforts on a wide range of issues of concern to the industry, principally the current debate over whether and how best to advance the industry’s operations to meet the city’s new environmental goals while maintaining the benefits of the existing open market system.

When completed, the NWRA New York City Chapter will represent more than 50 companies, most of which are direct service providers licensed by the city’s Business Integrity Commission.