A micro-hauler collects source separated organic waste, and only that, at small scale and usually in a small vehicle. It is a recognised category in New York City rather than a description somebody invented: waste collected by a micro-hauler is excluded from the Commercial Waste Zones program.

Why the exclusion matters

Commercial Waste Zones assign one carter per zone for ordinary commercial waste. Without the exclusion, a business in a zone would have to take its food scraps from whoever won that zone, whatever they did with the material. The exclusion is what lets a business keep its zone carter for trash and choose separately who handles its food scraps.

What it means in practice

• ●One material. A micro-hauler cannot take your trash or your recycling, and does not want to.
• ●Small vehicles on fixed routes, which is why density matters and why a block opens when the businesses on it add up to a worthwhile load.
• ●Short trips to local processing, rather than a transfer station and a long haul.
• ●Weights per stop rather than per container, because a bucket on a scale is the natural unit.

What it does not mean

It does not mean unlicensed, and it does not mean a business can skip its obligations because the hauler is small. A generator’s obligations are the generator’s. What a micro-hauler can give you is a record of what was collected, when, what it weighed, and where it went.

Ours goes to a community compost site in South Brooklyn and comes back as soil for gardens and street tree beds. Every delivery is listed, with the businesses whose scraps were in it.