MTA failed to follow recycling law, losing $800K in major trash fail: report

MTA workers ignored basic recycling laws — sending hundreds of tons of recyclables to landfills and losing $800,000 in savings on its trash-hauling contract over five years, according to a report released Tuesday.

Workers at facilities owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — which often touts its services as eco-friendly — weren’t separating recyclables from regular trash, the new report from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s inspector general found.

In rare cases the items were separated, the contracted waste hauler mixed cardboard and paper back in with garbage, the report said.

The amount of cardboard and paper the waste hauler recycled dropped by almost 80% between 2018 and 2023.

“The fact that the Carting Company commingled recyclables and Waste from the facilities serviced by single‑compartment, rear load garbage trucks is quite troubling because almost all agency locations assigned recycling containers – 104 out of 107, or 97% – were serviced by these trucks,” the report said.

MTA board records show that Action Carting Environmental Services, a New Jersey‑based firm, won a refuse and recycling contract in 2019 worth about $39.2 million, and later received a two‑year extension valued at $19.3 million

The deal required workers to keep cardboard and paper separate from regular garbage by using a dedicated recycling truck and sometimes gave the MTA a credit for the recycling depending on market prices.

But even when MTA staff set cardboard and paper aside workers, the contractor frequently loaded the recycling into the same single‑compartment garbage trucks used for trash, according to the investigation by IG Daniel Cort.

The trucking company reported it recycled 793 tons of cardboard and paper in 2018, the report said. That dropped to 165 tons in 2024, according to the IG — the same year the MTA board voted to extend the contract with Action Carting.

The contract even estimated recycling should have been much higher at about 576 tons per year.

Representatives for Action Carting Environmental Services admitted at a Special Responsibility Hearing in May 2026 they had not been using a dedicated recycling truck and said drivers sometimes just eyeballed the amount of recycling to estimate its weight.

The MTA’s Asset Recovery unit, which was supposed to manage the contract, did not flag or investigate the drop, even though billing records showed recycling dumps were taking place only about once a week instead of five days a week as required, according to the report.

The IG also found MTA workers at 21 out of 40 bus depots and repair shops inspected were not separating recyclables from trash.

At 23 sites, recycling containers lacked labels, and at least seven sites were missing some or all of the recycling bins listed in the service plan, according to the IG.

The report estimated that the MTA lost between $107,000 and $158,000 each year and nearly $800,000 over five years in missed recycling credits and unnecessary pickup and dumping fees for trash that could have been recycled.

The inspector general said the MTA promised to require GPS data and electronic weight information to its next trash and recycling contract.

A separate follow‑up audit that has not yet been released that will look more closely at the Action Carting Environmental Services performance and billing.

Action Carting Environmental Services did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

An MTA spokesperson said the agency remained committed to “environmentally conscious policies and practices.”

“We have directed the vendor to make changes to trash and recycling collection procedures, including mandating electronic billing with all the information necessary on weight tickets as part of their next contract, and are retraining employees to improve sorting of trash and recyclables at transit facilities,” the spokesperson said.