Dive Brief:
- Century Waste Services sued New York City’s Department of Sanitation on Dec. 9, alleging the agency made an error by not awarding it one of three commercial waste zone contracts in Staten Island.
- Century alleged the agency didn’t properly evaluate one of the winning bids, from Priority First Carting, because it had significantly lower pricing than the others. The suit requests that Priority’s contract be annulled and that Century receive one instead.
- DSNY Press Secretary Vincent Gragnani said the agency cannot comment on pending litigation. Priority declined to comment.
Dive Insight:
DSNY is in the process of reshaping the city’s open market commercial waste system into 20 zones, with three contracts each. Other haulers have also asked the agency to reconsider them for contracts, but this is the first known lawsuit about such a contract.
Haulers who didn’t receive contracts in early 2024 have been faced with the choice of whether to sell their business, become subcontractors or keep operating until service transitions in their respective areas. Implementation has begun in three zones, but no date has been set for Staten Island. The agency plans to transition all zones by the end of 2027.
Acquisitions continue to have ripple effects in the market and have already led to zone awards for runner-up bids, though not yet in Staten Island.
Century bid on six zones in Manhattan, plus the one borough-wide zone in Staten Island. Following those unsuccessful bids, it sold routes in Manhattan and Brooklyn to Waste Connections this year.
CEO Marc Savino said he’s particularly focused on Staten Island because of its proximity to his company’s headquarters in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a state which has a different competitive landscape for post-collection facilities. Savino also cited personal connections.
"This is a big area because of the investments that I've made with the customers in equipment, relationships over the years,” he said, citing an estimated 30 compactors installed. "It's my home, it's the home of a lot of my employees. A lot of the customers are my friends and family that I service.”
Savino said he chose not to sue over the Manhattan zones because he views the Staten Island contract situation as more unique in terms of pricing and competition among bidders.
Priority has an estimated nine employees and six trucks, according to a recent report from the city comptroller, versus Century’s estimated 84 employees and 43 trucks. Other Staten Island zone winners, Cogent Waste Solutions and Green Environmental Services, also have larger operations. Action Carting Environmental Services, a subsidiary of Interstate Waste Services, also bid on the zone but has now reached the maximum amount of zones allowed across other boroughs.
Priority’s proposed rates were lower than the other two winning bidders at $282.20 per month for five-day service. This 145% difference between the highest price in that zone, from Green Environmental, was the widest spread in any zone according to the comptroller’s report.
Century’s complaint also details concerns about Priority’s other rates for different types of service, including “a flat $200 ‘per pull’ fee for open-top containers regardless of container size; flat $350 fee for compactors regardless of size; $0 additional charges for curbside frequency from once to seven times per week; and multiple premium services at $0.”
"I just don't think having a company that cannot survive based on the prices that they have bid ... is in the best interest of Staten Island or the city in general,” said Savino.
Staten Island has fewer large accounts with compactors than other zones, which could make that category less pertinent, but these rates are still lower than other proposals.
DSNY, in an effort to account for inflationary pressures during the pandemic, weighted pricing as 40% of bid scores in the RFP process. Priority ranked first on pricing, but fifth on the other two categories — technical proposals as well as capacity and operations. Century ranked fifth on pricing and fourth in the other two categories.
Century began filing a series of public records requests in 2023 as word of potential contract awards began circulating. While many of these requests were denied, which Century also raises as an issue in its suit, some yielded new information.
This included a May 5, 2025, request from Priority to DSNY to adjust its rates to levels that were higher than Century’s. The agency denied this request. Century’s attorneys sent a letter to DSNY in September threatening to sue unless the agency annulled Priority’s contract and awarded a contract to Century instead. The agency declined this request.
Questions about pricing viability for bids in multiple zones have been circulating for many months as details began to come out via DSNY’s website and the comptroller’s report.
Commissioner Javier Lojan, speaking in late September about the overall RFP process, said the agency took pricing viability into account because “we didn’t want any low bidders coming in where they couldn’t support an operation and then we would be obviously in a tough position.”
The prospect of litigation has been on the agency’s radar for years, following contentious legal challenges to a commercial waste zone system in Los Angeles. During a February 2023 New York city council hearing, then-Commissioner Jessica Tisch cited this as a factor in DSNY’s thinking.
“On potential litigation, we have emphasized creating a fair and competitive process that follows the letter of the city’s procurement rules and procedures,” said Tisch, citing a best and final offer process as part of this.
DSNY hasn’t filed an official reply to the suit yet. Savino declined to speculate on whether a favorable outcome could set a precedent for other unsuccessful bidders to challenge zone awards.
In the meantime, he’s looking at ways to expand business in New Jersey. This includes a new municipal hauling contract for the city of Bayonne, which starts next year.
