"Only in New York," said Michael Cherkasky, a Federal monitor for trash-hauling companies on Long Island, "would Browning-Ferris be viewed as a white knight."

Miss Junk is a trash-hauling company Launched in 2008 by brothers Ramon and Tony Mercado.

Other unions at trash-hauling companies in New York City do not receive pay and benefits as comprehensive as those of Local 813, he said.

The City Trade Waste Commission was also up and running, and it ultimately oversaw the shutdown or sale of 185 trash-hauling companies or denied licenses to them.

The body was found about five miles from the in-laws' house, when a truck driver for a private trash-hauling company stopped to check an equipment jam.

Mr. Spensieri had run a trash-hauling company with Mr. Romano and was romantically involved with Mr. Romano's mother, officials said.

The Groton program requires the cooperation of residents as well as a dozen private trash-hauling companies that serve the town.

In what amounted to a shareholder vote of no confidence, shares of Waste Management, the trash-hauling company based in Oak Brook, Ill., fell $5.75, to $23.25, yesterday, a 20 percent decline.

Two brothers who own the largest commercial trash-hauling company in Staten Island pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to evading taxes on more than $2 million of income.

For three years, the Chambers president, Salvatore Benedetto, worked with the District Attorney's office to expose the mob's grip on trash-hauling companies.