Landlord employs slave labor?

[YourWackyNeighbor]

I live in a rental apartment building in Brooklyn. There are bins outside for recycling. As tenants, we are required to separate our trash from recyclables. The landlord has a few workers who "prepare" the garbage for pickup. They go through the trash, separating and recyclables that don't belong, and they wash them.

Is this legal? Trash is ing. My trash consists of egg shells, coffee grinds, uneaten cat food, rotten food from the fridge and wet cigarette butts. If I have an infected wound, the old bandage is going in there as well. Should someone really be sorting through that filth with nothing but rubber gloves?

I get really depressed when I see them going through the trash. Life is hard and definitely not fair, should people have to sift through biohazard to pay the bills?

[TenantNet]

A couple of thoughts...

I presume the LL is paying the workers, right? So it's not slave labor. You don't say what the rate of pay is, so that's not an issue here.

What is a biohazard? If I spit out used toothpaste into my trash and it ends up in the trash cans, is that a biohazard? There has to be a definition. Usually household trash isn't a real biohazard.

Nevertheless I would think at a minimum rubber gloves and an air filter mask would make sense, as well as long sleeve shirts.

LL a required to have trash separated, so one could claim he's complying with the law (many LLs don't).

But aside from all that, it's not really a LL-T issue. If you have questions, call the NYC Dept. of Health. Call OSHA. There may be other agencies as well that look at these issues.

[YourWackyNeighbor]

why would you spit toothpaste into the trash and not the sink?

[TenantNet]

It was a hypothetical, but some people do that. The point is that some people might consider smelly socks to be biohazards. But in most cases they are not considered to be medical waste.

In any case, it's not a LL/T issue.

[ronin]

Those people going through the recyclables are probably not working for the LL or sorting trash. They are most likely people who go through collecting bottles for the return deposits throughout the neighborhoods.

If your LL is paying someone to sort trash then he should get an Earth Day medal. If more did so, NYC's waste would be less wasteful.

Your subject title is misleading and ridiculous. Obviously someone handles garbage somewhere. What did you think? That it was handled by garbage elves singing Disney tunes or something?

To accuse your LL of using slave labor without even knowing what he is paying or if he actually hires the people you see is a pretty stupid and insulting thing to do

[Emeraldstar]

Hi All
Toto I don't think we're in NY anymore

[ronin]

So that's where you got your forum name Emeraldstar! If you start clicking your heels and saying "There's no place like home." I'm outta here.