Hit TV shows like the Sopranos and countless Mafia movies have used the lucrative waste-hauling and the mob’s involvement in it as a story-telling backdrop. The New Jersey State Commission of Investigation (SCI) is out with a report today revealing that’s not just a stereotype.

The blistering report claims New Jersey’s commercial solid waste industry remains open to abuse and manipulation by criminal elements circumventing the State’s oversight and regulatory system.

Specifically the SCI report says, “Individuals banned from the industry here years ago because of ties to organized crime and other criminal activities have nonetheless found ways to conduct a lucrative commerce in waste‐hauling and recycling. New Jersey has also become a haven for criminally‐tainted entrepreneurs who were kicked out of the business as a result of heightened vigilance and stronger rules elsewhere, most notably in neighboring New York.”

The SCI recommends that the State Attorney General take over the regulatory duties and asks the Governor and legislature to come up with a variety of self-funding mechanisms to provide oversight support.

 

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