The Business Integrity Commission will continue to exist, an agency official said Friday, a day after the regulator's commissioner mused that its days could be numbered if the city carries through with a plan to consolidate the private carting industry.

"BIC will continue to regulate carters," the agency's policy director, Salvador Arrona, said in a letter to Crain's.

Arrona issued the clarification after Chairman Daniel Brownell said at a Thursday forum sponsored by Crain's that "I'm not even sure you'd need a BIC" if the de Blasio administration realizes its vision of assigning businesses a carter based on their locations. If adopted, the plan would likely reduce the number of private waste collectors from about 80 to a dozen or so, perhaps reducing the industry's vulnerability to infiltration by organized crime.

The Business Integrity Commission was created in 1996 as the Waste Trade Commission to clean up the carting industry and keep mobsters out. It is tasked with the protecting wholesale markets as well.

In his letter, Arrona pointed out that not all commercial garbage pickup would be affected by zoned collection. He added that BIC will work with the city to ensure carters that win contracts to service zones meet their obligations and do not engage in price-fixing.

He also said the agency would continue to regulate firms that haul such wastes as construction and demolition debris, medical waste, and tires, as well as used cooking oil, the dumping of which has lately been causing big problems for sewers in certain parts of Queens.

The Business Integrity Commission will continue to exist, an agency official said Friday, a day after the regulator's commissioner mused that its days could be numbered if the city carries through with a plan to consolidate the private carting industry.

"BIC will continue to regulate carters," the agency's policy director, Salvador Arrona, said in a letter to Crain's.

Arrona issued the clarification after Chairman Daniel Brownell said at a Thursday forum sponsored by Crain's that "I'm not even sure you'd need a BIC" if the de Blasio administration realizes its vision of assigning businesses a carter based on their locations. If adopted, the plan would likely reduce the number of private waste collectors from about 80 to a dozen or so, perhaps reducing the industry's vulnerability to infiltration by organized crime.

The Business Integrity Commission was created in 1996 as the Waste Trade Commission to clean up the carting industry and keep mobsters out. It is tasked with the protecting wholesale markets as well.

In his letter, Arrona pointed out that not all commercial garbage pickup would be affected by zoned collection. He added that BIC will work with the city to ensure carters that win contracts to service zones meet their obligations and do not engage in price-fixing.

He also said the agency would continue to regulate firms that haul such wastes as construction and demolition debris, medical waste, and tires, as well as used cooking oil, the dumping of which has lately been causing big problems for sewers in certain parts of Queens.

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