Saving Money through NYC’s Commercial Waste Zones

COMMERCIAL REAL-ESTATE CASE STUDY

A multi-site, commercial property manager worked with WATS to find out how upcoming changes to New York City’s commercial waste regulations would affect their diversion efforts and their waste-related expenses. Using WATS, the client learned that their sites could reduce waste costs by 27% per month once Commercial Waste Zones go into effect (about $18,000 in monthly savings beyond what they would see without diverting more waste), justifying the cost to start increasing waste diversion now - in recognition that behavioral change does not happen overnight.

"This analysis will really help me get buy-in from my colleagues.”

— Property manager & Sustainability lead

$18,000

Monthly savings

27%

Reduction in waste costs

BUSINESS TYPE

Commercial real- estate

BUSINESS DETAILS

3 sites analyzed

~4 million square feet

Challenge

The client recognized that their sites had opportunities to recycle and compost more of their waste, but their waste hauling contracts did not incentivize waste diversion, and their composting rates were higher than their trash rates. This meant that efforts to improve diversion would increase their monthly waste costs.

Starting in 2024, New York City began rolling out their Commercial Waste Zones framework (CWZ), the outcome of Local Law 199 which was passed in 2019.

One major factor of the law is that it stipulates lower rates for recycling and composting as compared to trash which  incentivizes waste diversion. The client needed more information on how their costs could change in order to decide if the long-term benefits would outweigh the short-term costs of recycling and composting more within their current contracts.

Solution

In order to provide a clear, data-driven view of waste operations, WATS seamlessly ingested 12 months of waste invoices, automatically extracting key quantitative insights for each site, including:

  • Monthly waste stream weights and cost per pound

  • Pickup frequencies and cost per pickup 

  • Total monthly costs

Using business type benchmarks, WATS estimated the maximum potential monthly recycling and compost waste at each site, as well as the potential monthly costs within their current contracts.

The WATS team then took it a step further, forecasting potential monthly waste costs under NYC’s upcoming Commercial Waste Zones to uncover exciting opportunities for cost savings through smarter waste diversion!

Results

WATS determined that the client could reduce their monthly waste costs by 27% (about $18,000) at each of their sites once Commercial Waste Zones go into effect, providing site stakeholders with concrete and quantified evidence to support diversion efforts.

Moreover, this insight analysis concluded that even though additional recycling and organics separation would slightly increase monthly costs in the short-term, the client would ultimately benefit from starting diversion efforts now because education, signage, and updated infrastructure all take time to implement.

This client proves the power of the WATS insights engine - delivering game-changing data to help NYC stakeholders stay ahead of regulatory shifts and make smarter, more strategic waste decisions! 🚀