Section 16-303. Definitions

When used in this chapter:
    a.  "Buy-back  center" means a recycling center that purchases and may
  otherwise accept recyclable materials from the public for the purpose of
  recycling such materials.
    b. "Department-collected solid waste" means all solid waste  that  the
  department  and  its  contractors  collect  and all solid waste that the
  department receives for free disposal.
    c.  "Department-disposed  of  solid  waste"  means  all  solid  waste,
  including  department-collected solid waste, disposed of at a department
  landfill,  incinerator,  resource  recovery  facility  or  other   waste
  disposal facility owned, operated or used by the department.
    d.  "Drop-off  center"  means  a recycling center that accepts and may
  otherwise purchase recyclable materials from the public for the  purpose
  of recycling such materials.
    e.  "Household" means a single dwelling or a residential unit within a
  multiple dwelling, hotel, motel, campsite,  ranger  station,  public  or
  private recreation area, or other residence.
    f. "Post-collection separation" means the dividing of solid waste into
  some or all of its component parts after the point of collection.
    g.  "Post-consumer  material" means only those products generated by a
  business or a consumer which have served their intended  end  uses,  and
  which  have been separated or diverted from solid waste for the purposes
  of collection, recycling and disposition.
    h. "Private carter" means  any  person  required  to  be  licensed  or
  permitted pursuant to subchapter eighteen of chapter two of title twenty
  of this code.
    i.  "Recyclable  materials"  means  solid waste that may be separated,
  collected, processed, marketed and returned to the economy in  the  form
  of  raw  materials  or  products,  including but not limited to types of
  metal, glass, paper, plastic, food waste, tires and yard waste.
    j. "Recycled" or "recycling" means any  process  by  which  recyclable
  materials  are separated, collected, processed, marketed and returned to
  the economy in the form of raw materials or products.
    k. "Recycling center" means any facility operated  to  facilitate  the
  separation,  collection, processing or marketing of recyclable materials
  for reuse or sale.
    l. "Recycling district" means any borough or smaller  geographic  area
  the  commissioner deems appropriate for the purpose of implementing this
  chapter.
    m. "Secondary material" means any material recovered from or otherwise
  destined  for  the  waste  stream,  including  but   not   limited   to,
  post-consumer  material,  industrial  scrap  material  and  overstock or
  obsolete inventories from distributors, wholesalers and other companies,
  but such term does not include those materials and by-products generated
  from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process.
    n. "Solid waste" means all putrescible and  non-putrescible  materials
  or   substances,   except  as  described  in  paragraph  three  of  this
  subdivision, that are discarded or rejected  as  being  spent,  useless,
  worthless  or  in  excess  to  the owners at the time of such discard or
  rejection, including but not limited to garbage, refuse, industrial  and
  commercial  waste,  rubbish,  tires,  ashes, contained gaseous material,
  incinerator  residue,  construction  and  demolition  debris,  discarded
  automobiles and offal.
    1. A material is discarded if it is abandoned by being:
    i. disposed of;
    ii.  burned  or  incinerated, including being burned as a fuel for the
  purpose of recovering useable energy; or

    iii. accumulated, stored, or physically,  chemically  or  biologically
  treated  (other  than  burned or incinerated) instead of or before being
  disposed of.
    2. A material is disposed of if it is discharged, deposited, injected,
  dumped,  spilled, leaked, or placed into or on any land or water so that
  such material or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be
  emitted into the air or discharged into groundwater or surface water.
    3. The following are not solid waste for the purpose of this chapter:
    i. domestic sewage;
    ii. any mixture of  domestic  sewage  and  other  wastes  that  passes
  through  a  sewer  system  to  a  publicly  owned  treatment  works  for
  treatment, except any material that is introduced into  such  system  in
  order  to  avoid the provisions of this chapter or the state regulations
  promulgated to regulate solid waste management facilities pursuant to  6
  NYCRR Part 360;
    iii.  industrial  wastewater  discharges  that are actual point source
  discharges  subject  to  permits  under   article   seventeen   of   the
  environmental  conservation  law;  industrial wastewaters while they are
  being collected, stored, or treated before discharge  and  sludges  that
  are generated by industrial wastewater treatment are solid wastes;
    iv. irrigation return flows;
    v.   radioactive  materials  that  are  source,  special  nuclear,  or
  by-product material as defined by the Atomic  Energy  Act  of  1954,  as
  amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq.
    vi.  materials  subject  to  in-situ  mining  techniques which are not
  removed from the ground as part of the extraction process;
    vii.  hazardous  waste  as  defined  in   section   27-0901   of   the
  environmental conservation law; and
    viii.  regulated  medical waste or other medical waste as described in
  section 16-120.1 of this title.
    o. "Source separation" means the dividing of solid waste into some  or
  all of its component parts at the point of generation.
    p.   "Yard  waste"  means  leaves,  grass  clippings,  garden  debris,
  vegetative residue that is recognizable as part of a plant or vegetable,
  small or chipped branches, and similar material.