One of the more important industries that Cosa Nostra has infiltrated over the years has been rubbish removal.
A vital industry, garbage hauling or the carting industry, is a pivotal function of any major city or jurisdiction. An important necessity in the daily lives of both urban and suburban residents, one could not imagine life without the removal of the daily waste and rubbish that every human being steadily creates.
It is an unspoken service that we seldom even think about. But when we do, we quickly realize what a mess we would have on our hands if the removal of our daily garbage were not disposed of quickly and properly.
Many municipalities handle their own garbage removal with a city-run sanitation department. For instance, the city of New York has the NYC Sanitation Department, which is run as a formal department, similar to the NYC Fire Department and NYC Police Department.
It is a civil service job. After 20 years or so, these city employees are entitled to a pension like any other city worker. New York City residents pay a small annual fee built into their tax bill to pay for this weekly service.
But we are only talking about the garbage generated by New York City’s private residents. All commercial garbage, the waste generated by a million businesses, both large and small, throughout Manhattan and its four outer boroughs and outer suburbs, has always been privatized.
Hundreds of private garbage removal/carting companies have controlled this segment of the industry since day one. Millions of small and large businesses and major corporations depend on this steady, unwavering service.
Many of New York’s suburban areas, such as Long Island, Westchester, and other municipalities, have contracted out residential and commercial garbage pickups to private companies for decades. They felt this relieved the financial burden on local governments and the complex logistics required to operate such a sprawling, monolithic government department.
Many cities and municipalities in other states have also “privatized” this industry. They outsource this service the same way New York does through an annual bidding procedure in which private carters put in secret “bids” to service certain neighborhoods, towns, or sections of the city.
The awarded contract typically goes to the lowest bidder. It could be a contract for one year, two years, or even five years. It depends upon the bylaws put in place by those in local government. For instance, many townships within the counties of Nassau and Suffolk on Long Island have always had private carting firms pick up their trash.
Enter the mob!
“Rag Pickers”
The Mafia has always been in the garbage removal business. Many early Italian immigrants gravitated to this industry soon after arriving at Ellis Island.
Starting with the “rag trade,” mostly because it was inexpensive and simple to get into, “rag pickers” as they were known, slowly gravitated to hauling away garbage and debris for customers by horse and wagon within the five boroughs back in the early 1920s.
Over the decades, this eventually morphed into all facets of traditional garbage hauling, both residential and commercial rubbish.
Another tremendous spinoff business of the original rag pickers was one that would evolve into the lucrative “junkyard” business. A spin-off of the junkyard business was the scrap metal industry.
Collectively, the different facets of these sub-industries have evolved into an almost incalculable multibillion-dollar-per-year industry.
During the early 1970s, another tremendous spinoff industry took flight. With the constant increase of industrial evolution, the production of toxic wastes became a major ecological concern for not only the United States but the world over.
From this, the toxic waste disposal industry was born and expanded to epic proportions, and with it, the costly logistics of proper disposal of these noxious fumes and dangerous, potentially deadly chemicals.
Of course, with an ecology-minded public, the government soon encouraged crafty businessmen and carting companies to expand into the “recycling business,” which today is paramount to the health of any city, town, or other jurisdiction the world over.
These combined industries soon became a very valuable commodity for organized crime. Although many varied independents and loosely“connected” racketeers of every ethnicity were drawn to the big profits to be made, no entity or group became more involved than the Mafia.
A Dominant Force
Cosa Nostra today, as back then, is without a doubt the dominant force in all those sister industries. If they are not directly involved in company ownership, as many mafiosi are, then nearly all industry-wide companies and individuals out there operating do owe allegiance to one mafiosi or another, in one way or another, to one borgata or another.
For many decades, it was nearly impossible for carting companies within certain key Mafia-dominated cities or states to be in that business without paying homage to the boys.
Whether by joining an industry “trade association” that a mob guy started or a mobbed-up labor union that controlled the drivers and helpers who operated garbage trucks, rubbish weight scales and depots, garbage dumps, and landfills, Cosa Nostra’s hand was nearly always in the pot.
But aside from assessorial services and associations, many mob guys actually own or have investments in garbage carting firms, scrap metal companies, and even the landfills that are so pivotal to the industry for dumping and legal disposal of the rubbish and waste products collected.
Even on its own, when completely operated on the “up and up,” the carting business has always been a highly lucrative industry to be in.
Additionally, with their shark-like business acumen and ability to “cut corners” to gain an edge, the soldiers and associates of Cosa Nostra have created a veritable goldmine for themselves throughout the decades. This is true not only in New York City and its outer environs, counties, and jurisdictions but in many other states as well.
Law enforcement in the neighboring states of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania have all repeatedly investigated the deep penetration that Italian organized crime has made over time into their states.
All of these states have witnessed firsthand the stranglehold Cosa Nostra and its loyal minions have achieved in this industry over its citizenry. This absolute control that has been demonstrated by the Mafia has generated riches for organized crime to the tune of untold billions (not millions) in garbage dollars over the years.
For many decades now, the mob has exhibited a monolithic stranglehold and dominion over this entire industry. They have virtually smothered and “aced out” any potential competition, as only Cosa Nostra can.
What I have compiled below, although very extensive, is but a short list of the literally hundreds of mob-connected carting firms that have operated throughout New York City, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, and Connecticut for decades.
Additionally, we name many of the more prominent garbage racketeers and mafiosi who have controlled things in the business from the inception of this industry.
It is a pivotal control unlike anything ever witnessed before. Even for the Mafia, it has been a monumental achievement.
