Sanitation Salvage, a private garbage hauling company that was involved in multiple fatal incidents, has closed.
Sanitation Committee Chair Antonio Reynoso joined sanitation workers with the New York Teamsters Joint Council 16, community members and allies on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to celebrate the company’s shuttering and remember those who died in Sanitation Salvage truck crashes.
“Over a year after the death of Mouctar Diallo, Sanitation Salvage, the company responsible for the fatality and its cover up, has announced that they are going out of business,” Reynoso said at the event. “Today, we joined together in solemn celebration of this announcement. However, we know that the fight does not end here. The BIC must ensure that Sanitation Salvage is held fully accountable for their past wrongs, this includes the payment of back wages to workers.”
On Nov. 7, 2017, Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, was “crushed to death under the wheels of a Sanitation Salvage truck,” ProPublica reported. Workers then lied to authorities, saying Diallo was a homeless person who came out of nowhere.
Sean Spence, the driver who hit Diallo, continued to work for the company and in April 2018, hit and killed 72-year-old NYCHA resident Leo Clarke, who was crossing the street with a cane.
Sanitation Salvage unhappy with Business Integrity Commission
Lawyers for Sanitation Salvage sent a letter on Tuesday to officials saying that the company would surrender its license and cease operations.
The Business Integrity Commission (BIC), which is the city agency that oversees the private trash collection business, previously suspended the company’s license. The lawyer called that decision “unlawful and ill-advised,” and said it the letter that it “doomed” the company.
After the company lost customers because of that suspended license, it was left “with no choice but to surrender its license rather than incur further operating losses,” the lawyer wrote.
The BIC said it is working to connect the remaining Sanitation Salvage customers with other trash haulers.
