For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
BOARD. The Board of Commissioners of the county.
BULKY WASTE. Large items of solid waste as household appliances, furniture, automobiles, large auto parts, trees, branches, stumps and other oversize 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 from a point of generation to a central storage point or to a disposal site and from a central storage point to a disposal site.
COMMERCIAL SOLID WASTE. Solid waste generated by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses and other nonmanufacturing activities excluding residential, industrial and institutional wastes.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTE. Solid waste resulting solely from construction, remodeling, repair or demolition operations on building, or other structures but does not include inert, land-clearing or yard waste debris or used asphalt mixed with dirt, sand, gravel, rock, concrete or similar non-hazardous material.
DEPARTMENT. The state’s Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources.
DIVISION. The County Division of Solid Waste Management, Community Development Services Administration.
GARBAGE. All putrescible wastes, including animal offal and carcasses and recognizable industrial by-products, but excluding sewage and human waste.
HAZARDOUS WASTE. Solid waste, or combination of solid wastes, that because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness; or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when properly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed.
INCINERATION. The process of burning solid, semi-solid or gaseous combustible wastes to an inoffensive gas and a residue containing little or no combustible material.
INDUSTRIAL SOLID WASTE. Solid waste generated by manufacturing or industrial processes that is not hazardous waste regulated under Subtitle C of RCRA. The waste may include, but is not limited to, waste resulting from the following manufacturing processes: Electric power generation; fertilizer/agricultural chemicals; food and related products/by products; inorganic chemicals; iron and
steel manufacturing; leather and leather products; nonferrous metals manufacturing/founderies; organic chemicals; plastics and resins manufacturing; pulp and paper industry; rubber and miscellaneous plastic products; stone, glass, clay, and concrete products; textile manufacturing; transportation equipment; and waste treatment. This term does not include mining waste or oil and gas waste.
INERT DEBRIS. Solid waste that consists solely of material that is virtually inert, as brick, concrete, rock and clean soil.
INFECTIOUS WASTE. A 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, health care, correctional, and other institutional facilities, excluding residential, commercial and industrial waste.
LAND-CLEARING DEBRIS. Solid waste that is generated solely from land-clearing activities such as stumps, trees and the like.
LANDFILL. A disposal facility or part of a disposal facility where waste is placed in or on land and that is not a land treatment facility, a surface impoundment, an injection well, a hazardous waste long-term storage facility or a surface storage facility.
LITTER. Any quantity of material, whether liquid or solid, whether organic or inorganic, which may be classified as garbage, trash, rubbish, junk or refuse.
MEDICAL WASTE. Any solid waste that 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, radioactive waste, household waste as defined in 40 C.F.R. part 261.404(1), or those substances excluded from the definition of “solid waste” in this chapter.
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL UNIT. A discrete area of land or an excavation that receives household waste, and is not a land application unit, surface impoundment, injection well or waste pile, as defined under 40 C.F.R. part 257. A landfill may be publicly or privately owned. A MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL UNIT may also be permitted to receive other types of non-hazardous solid waste. A MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL UNIT may be a new MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL UNIT, an existing MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL UNIT or a lateral expansion.
OPEN BURNING. The combustion of solid waste without control of combustion air to maintain adequate temperature for efficient combustion; containment of the combustion reaction in an enclosed device to provide sufficient residence time and mixing for complete combustion; and control of the emission of the combustion products.
OPEN DUMP. A solid waste disposal site that does not have a permit and/or does not comply with the rules set forth in this chapter.
PATHOLOGICAL WASTES. Human tissues, organs, body parts, secretions and excretions, blood and body fluids that are removed during surgery and autopsies, and the carcasses and body parts of any animals that were exposed to pathogens that are potentially dangerous to humans during research, were used in the production of biologicals or in in vivo testing of pharmaceuticals, or that died with a known or suspected disease transmissible to humans.
PERSON. An individual, corporation, company, association, partnership, unit of local government, state agency, federal agency or other legal entity.
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; amenable 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 carcasses.
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MATERIAL. Waste containing any material, whether solid, liquid or gas, that emits ionizing radiation spontaneously.
RECYCLABLE CORRUGATED CARDBOARD. Cardboard that consists of two outer layers of linerboard with corrugating medium between the two outer layers of linerboard, that is recyclable.
RECYCLING. The process by which solid waste or recovered materials are collected, separated or processed, and reused or returned to use in the form of raw materials or products.
REFUSE. Solid waste, other than garbage or ashes, from residences, commercial establishments and institutions.
REGULATED MEDICAL WASTE. Blood and body fluids in individual containers in volumes greater than 20 milliliters, microbiological waste and pathological waste that has not been treated pursuant to rules promulgated by the Department.
RESOURCE RECOVERY. The process of obtaining material or energy resources from discarded solid waste that no longer has any useful life in its present form and preparing the solid waste for recycling or energy generation.
RESPONDENT. The person against whom an administrative penalty has been assessed.
REUSE. A process by which resources are reused or rendered usable.
SANITARY LANDFILL. A facility for disposal of solid waste on land in a sanitary manner in accordance with the rules concerning sanitary landfills adopted pursuant to G.S. Chapter 130A, Article 9.
SCRAP TIRES. A tire that is no longer suitable for its original, intended purpose because of wear, damage or defect.
SEPTAGE. Solid waste that is a fluid mixture of untreated and partially treated sewage solids, liquids and sludge of human or domestic origin which is removed from a septic tank system.
SHARPS. Needles, syringes and scalpel blades.
SLUDGE. Any solid, semi-solid or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, institutional or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility or any other waste having similar characteristics and effect.
SOLID WASTE. Any hazardous or nonhazardous 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. The term does not include fecal waste from fowls and animals other than humans; or solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage and sludges generated by the treatment thereof in sanitary sewage collection, treatment and disposal systems which are designed to discharge effluents to the surface waters; irrigation return flows; and wastewater discharges and the sludges incidental thereto and generated by the treatment thereof which are point sources subject to permits granted under § 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended (Pub. Law No. 92-500), and permits granted under G.S. § 143-215.1 by the Environmental Management Commission; except that any sludges that meet the criteria for hazardous waste under the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (Pub. Law No. 94-580) as amended, shall also be a solid waste for the purpose of this definition; or oils and other liquid hydrocarbons controlled order G.S. Chapter 143, Article 21A; except that any oils or other liquid hydrocarbons that meet the criteria for hazardous waste under the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (Pub. Law No. 94-580) as amended, shall also be a solid waste for the purposes of this chapter; or any source special nuclear or byproduct material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 2011); mining refuse covered by the state’s Mining Act, G.S. §§ 74-46 through 74-68 and regulated by the state’s Mining Commission. However, any specific mining waste that meets the criteria for hazardous waste order the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (Pub. Law No. 94-580) as amended, shall also be a solid waste for the purposes of this definition.
SOLID WASTE COLLECTOR. Any person who collects or transports solid waste.
SOLID WASTE CONTAINER. Container used for the temporary storage of solid waste or recyclables while awaiting collection.
SOLID WASTE CONTAINER SITE. Any place owned, leased or operated by the county at which solid waste containers have been placed.
SOLID WASTE DIRECTOR. The Solid Waste Director of the Community Development Services Administration or his or her authorized representative.
SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL SITE. A location at which solid waste is disposed of by incineration, sanitary landfill or other approved method.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT. Purposeful, systematic control of the generation, storage, collection, transport, separation, treatment, processing, recycling, recovery and disposal of solid waste.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY. Land, personnel and equipment used in the management of solid waste.
SPECIAL WASTES. Solid wastes that can require special handling and management, including white goods, whole tires, used oil, lead-acid batteries and medical wastes.
TRANSFER FACILITY. A permanent structure with mechanical equipment used for the collection or compaction of solid waste prior to the transportation of solid waste for final disposal.
USED OIL. Any oil which has been refined from crude oil or synthetic oil and, as a result of use, storage or handling, has beams unsuitable for its original purpose.
WHITE GOODS. Inoperative and discarded refrigerators, ranges, water heaters, freezers and other similar domestic and commercial large appliances.
YARD WASTE. Solid waste consisting solely of vegetative matter resulting from landscaping maintenance, as leaves, grass, limbs, trimmings and the like.
(Ord. O-93-14, passed 9-7-1993; Ord. passed 1-11-2008)