Garbage Industry
1969

The Commission's October 1969 report, responding to the Legislature's request for an investigation, exposed infiltration of the solid waste collection and disposal industry by organized criminal elements. Responding to a Commission recommendation, the Governor and Legislature enacted the New Jersey Antitrust Act in 1970. 

The SCI also recommended licensing waste collectors and determining the real persons in interest of each collection and disposal company. The Governor and Legislature in 1970 enacted a law providing for licensing and regulating of the garbage industry by the State Public Utilities Commission, later the State Board of Public Utilities (BPU). In keeping with another SCI recommendation, the law also prohibited discrimination in the use of privately owned disposal facilities. A law providing for disclosure and investigation of the backgrounds of real parties in interest of waste firms was not passed until 1983, and its a lengthy court challenge concluded in 1986.

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