For purposes of this chapter the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
BEAR RESISTANT. A solid waste receptacle is bear resistant if the receptacle has, or is designed or marketed by its manufacturer to have, qualities or features that prevent bears from accessing the contents thereof when the door, lid, flap, or other covering is secured by its latch or other locking mechanism.
BULKY WASTE. Large man-made items of solid waste such as furniture, large auto parts, and other oversized wastes whose large size precludes or complicates their handling by normal solid waste collection, processing, or disposal methods.
COLLECTION. The act of removing solid waste (or materials that have been separated for the purpose of recycling) to a transfer station, processing facility, or disposal facility.
COMMERCIAL SOLID WASTE. All types of solid waste generated by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses, and other non-manufacturing activities, excluding residential and industrial waste; provided, that the definition of commercial solid waste is also applicable to places of residence having three or more dwelling units such as apartment buildings and mobile home courts.
COMMERCIAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTOR. Any person, firm, corporation, or other entity, engaged in whole or part, in the collection, transportation, delivery, or disposal of solid waste generated within the service area, including any such entity engaged in such activities with respect to solid waste generated by others for profit.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTE. Solid waste resulting solely from construction, remodeling, repair, or demolition operations on buildings, or other structures, but does not include inert debris, land-clearing debris, yard debris, brick, uncontaminated soil, sand, gravel, rock, concrete, or concrete block.
COUNCIL. The Town Council of the Town of Beech Mountain.
DEPARTMENT. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
DISPOSAL. The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any solid waste into or on any land or water so that the solid waste or any constituent part of the solid waste may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including ground waters.
DIVISION. The Director of the Division of Solid Waste Management of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or the Director's authorized representative.
ENFORCEMENT OFFICER. The Town Manager employed by the Town of Beech Mountain appointed by the Town Council, or his designee, whose duties include the enforcement of this chapter.
FARMING. Activities related or incidental to production of crops, fruits, vegetables, ornamental and flowering plants, dairy, livestock, poultry, and all other forms of agricultural products having a domestic or foreign market.
GARBAGE. All putrescible waste, including animal offal and carcasses, and recognizable industrial by-products, but excluding sewage and human waste.
HAZARDOUS WASTE.
(1) A solid waste, or combination of solid wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may:
(a) Cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness; or
(b) Pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed.
(2) Provided, however, that nothing herein shall be construed to authorize the town to regulate hazardous waste in any manner prohibited by or pre-empted by the applicable North Carolina General Statutes and state rules and regulations.
INDUSTRIAL PROCESS WASTE. Solid waste resulting from an industrial or manufacturing process which may be disposed of at the county landfill after demonstrating its non-hazardous status through analysis, or by other means. Includes, but is not limited to sandblasting grit, contaminated food products, ash and dust.
INDUSTRIAL SOLID WASTE. Solid waste generated by manufacturing or industrial processes that is not hazardous waste.
INERT DEBRIS. Solid waste, which consists solely of material that, is virtually inert and that is likely to retain its physical and chemical structure under expected conditions of disposal.
INFECTIOUS WASTE. Solid waste capable of producing an infectious disease. The types of waste designated as infectious are microbiological waste, pathological waste, blood products and sharps.
INSTITUTIONAL SOLID WASTE. Solid waste generated by educational, correctional, and other institutional facilities.
LAND-CLEARING DEBRIS. Solid waste which is generated solely from land-clearing activities.
LANDFILL. A disposal facility or part of a disposal facility where waste is placed in or on land and which is not a land treatment facility, a surface impoundment, an injection well, a hazardous waste long-term storage facility or a surface storage facility.
MEDICAL WASTE. Any solid waste which is generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals, but does not include any hazardous waste identified or listed pursuant to this chapter, radioactive waste, or household waste as defined in 40 CFR § 261/4(b)(1) in effect on July 1, 1989, or those substances excluded from the definition of SOLID WASTE in this chapter.
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE. Any solid waste resulting from the operation of residential, commercial, industrial, governmental, or institutional establishments that would normally be collected, processed and disposed of through a public entity or municipal solid waste management service. MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE does not include hazardous waste, sludge, or industrial waste managed in a solid waste management facility owned and operated by the generator of the industrial waste for management of that waste, or solid waste from mining or agricultural operations.
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTOR. Any public entity or municipal solid waste management service engaged in whole or part, in the collection, transportation, delivery, or disposal of solid waste generated within the service area, including any such entity engaged in such activities with
respect to solid waste generated by others.
OPEN DUMP. Any facility or site where solid waste is disposed of that is not a sanitary landfill and that is not a facility for the disposal of hazardous waste, specifically including a solid waste disposal site that does not have a permit, and/or does not comply with the rules set forth in the North Carolina Solid Waste Management Rules, 15A NCAC.13b.
PATHOLOGICAL WASTE. Human tissues, organs, and body parts, and the carcasses and body parts of any animals that were known to have been exposed to pathogens that are potentially dangerous to humans during research, were used in the production of biologicals or in vivo testing of pharmaceuticals, or that died with a known or suspected disease transmissible to humans.
PERSON. Any individual, firm, corporation, company, association, partnership, unit of local government, state agency, federal agency or other legal entity.
PREMISES. A definite portion of real estate including its appurtenance, a building, or part of a building.
PROCESSING. Any technique designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any solid waste so as to render it safe for transport; amendable to recovery, storage or recycling; safe for disposal; or reduced in volume or concentration.
PUTRESCIBLE. Solid waste capable of being decomposed by microorganisms with sufficient rapidity as to cause nuisances from odors and gases, such as kitchen wastes, offal, and animal carcasses.
RADIOACTIVE WASTE. Waste containing any material, whether solid, liquid, or gas that emits ionizing radiation spontaneously.
RECYCLABLE MATERIAL. Those materials which are capable of being recycled and which would otherwise be processed or disposed of as solid waste.
RECYCLING. Any process by which solid waste, or materials which would otherwise become solid waste, are collected, separated, or processed, and reused or returned to the use in the form of raw materials or products.
REFUSE. All non-putrescible wastes, solid waste, other than garbage and ashes, from residences, commercial establishments, and institutions.
REGULATED MEDICAL WASTE. Blood and body fluids in individual containers in volumes greater than 20 ml, microbiological waste, and pathological waste that has not been treated pursuant to
state rules.
RESIDENTIAL VACATION RENTALS. The rental of any single-family dwelling, duplex, or unit in a multi-family dwelling, or any portion thereof, for occupancy, dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes for any period of time less than 90 days. The term does not include other transient lodging such as hotels and motels, lodges, and bed and breakfast establishments, which are otherwise authorized under these regulations and which have been duly permitted or which are legal nonconforming uses.
RESIDENTIAL WASTE. Solid waste originating from private households (private single-family homes and apartments, condominiums, etc., not institutional residential facilities). Solid waste from a place of residences having three or more dwelling units is defined as commercial solid waste.
SANITARY LANDFILL. A facility for disposal of solid waste on land in sanitary manner in accordance with rules concerning sanitary landfill as defined in G.S. § 130A-290.
SCRAP TIRE. (Whole scrap tires are banned from disposal at the landfill) A tire that is no longer suitable for its origin at intended purpose because of wear, damage, or defect.
SHARPS. Needles, syringes, and scalpel blades.
SHORT-TERM RENTALS. See RESIDENTIAL VACATION RENTALS.
SLUDGE. Any solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, institutional, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, or any other waste having similar characteristics and effects.
SOLID WASTE. Any hazardous or non-hazardous garbage, refuse or sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility, domestic sewage and sludges generated by the treatment thereof in sanitary sewage collection, treatment and disposal systems, and other material that is either discarded or is being accumulated, stored or treated prior to being discarded or has served its original intended use and is generally discarded, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, institutional, commercial and agricultural operations, and from community activities. SOLID WASTE does not include:
(1) Fecal waste from fowls and animals other than humans;
(2) Solid or dissolved material in:
(a) Domestic sewage and sludge generated by treatment thereof in sanitary sewage collection, treatment and disposal systems which are designed to discharge effluents to the surface waters.
(b) Irrigation return flows.
(c) Wastewater discharges and the sludges incidental to and generated by treatment which are point sources subject to permits granted under Section 402 of the Water Pollution Control Act, as amended (P.L. 92-500), and permits granted under G.S. § 143-215.1 by the Environmental Management Commission. However, any sludge that meet the criteria for hazardous waste under RCRA shall also be a solid waste for the purposes of this chapter.
(3) Oils and other liquid hydrocarbons controlled under G.S. Chapter 143, Article 21A. However, any oils or other liquid hydrocarbons that meet the criteria for hazardous waste under RCRA shall also be a solid waste for the purposes of this chapter.
(4) Any source, special nuclear or byproduct material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 2011).
(5) Mining refuse covered by the North Carolina Mining Act, G.S. §§ 74-46 through 74-68 and regulated by the North Carolina Mining Commission (as defined under G.S. § 143B-290). However, any specific mining waste that meets the criteria for hazardous waste under RCRA shall also be a solid waste for the purposes of this chapter.
(6) Recyclable material.
(7) Hazardous waste excluded pursuant to G.S. §§ 153A-136 and 153A-294.
SOLID WASTE RULES. The regulations governing solid waste management adopted by the Solid Waste Section of the Department of Environmental Quality in accordance with EPA guidelines and other Federal Regulations.
USED OIL. Any oil which has been refined from crude oil or synthetic oil and, as a result of use, storage, or handling has become unsuitable for its original purpose.
WHITE GOODS. Includes refrigerators, ranges, water heaters, freezers, unit air conditioners, washing machines, dishwashers, clothes dryers, and other similar domestic and commercial large appliances.
The definitions set forth in G.S. § 130A-290 which are not expressly set forth in this chapter shall apply to and are hereby incorporated herein by reference to this chapter.
(Ord. 2020-04, passed 6-9-2020; Ord. 2021-01, passed 5-11-2021)