Virginia Law

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Board" means the Virginia Waste Management Board.

"Commercial waste" means all solid waste generated by establishments engaged in business operations other than manufacturing or construction. This category includes solid waste resulting from the operation of stores, markets, office buildings, restaurants, and shopping centers.

"Compost" means a stabilized organic product produced by a controlled aerobic decomposition process in such a manner that the product can be handled, stored, or applied to the land without adversely affecting public health or the environment.

"Composting" means the manipulation of the natural process of decomposition of organic materials to increase the rate of decomposition.

"Construction waste" means solid waste that is produced or generated during construction, remodeling, or repair of pavements, houses, commercial buildings, and other structures. Construction wastes include lumber, wire, sheetrock, broken brick, shingles, glass, pipes, concrete, paving materials, and metal and plastics if the metal or plastics are a part of the materials of construction or empty containers for such materials. Paints, coatings, solvents, asbestos-containing material, any liquid, compressed gases, or semi-liquids and garbage are not construction wastes.

"Debris waste" means solid waste resulting from land clearing operations. Debris wastes include stumps, wood, brush, leaves, soil, and road spoils.

"Demolition waste" means solid waste produced by the destruction of structures and their foundations and includes the same materials as construction wastes.

"Department" means the Department of Environmental Quality.

"Director" means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality or his designee. For purposes of submissions to the director as specified in the Waste Management Act, submissions may be made to the department.

"Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any solid waste into or on any land or water so that such solid waste or any constituent of it may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters.

"Facility" means solid waste management facility unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

"Hazardous waste" means a "hazardous waste" as defined by the Virginia Hazardous Waste Management Regulations, 9VAC20-60.

"Incineration" means the controlled combustion of solid waste for disposal.

"Industrial waste" means any solid waste generated by manufacturing or industrial process that is not a regulated hazardous waste. Such waste may include waste resulting from the following manufacturing processes: electric power generation; fertilizer/agricultural chemicals; food and related products/byproducts; inorganic chemicals; iron and steel manufacturing; leather and leather products; nonferrous metals manufacturing/foundries; 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 water treatment. This term does not include mining waste or oil and gas waste.

"Institutional waste" means all solid waste emanating from institutions such as, but not limited to, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, and public or private schools. It can include regulated medical waste from health care facilities and research facilities that must be managed as a regulated medical waste.

"Integrated waste management plan" means a governmental plan that considers all elements of waste management during generation, collection, transportation, treatment, storage, disposal, and litter control and selects the appropriate methods of providing necessary control and services for effective and efficient management of all wastes. An "integrated waste management plan" must provide for source reduction, reuse and recycling within the jurisdiction and the proper funding and management of waste management programs.

"Jurisdiction" means a local governing body; city, county or town; or any independent entity, such as a federal or state agency, which join with local governing bodies to develop a waste management plan.

"Landfill" means a sanitary landfill, an industrial waste landfill, or a construction/demolition/debris landfill (as these terms are defined in the Solid Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-81)).

"Litter" means all waste material disposable packages or containers, but not including the wastes of the primary processes of mining, logging, farming, or manufacturing.

"Market" means interim or end destinations for the recyclable materials, including a materials recovery facility.

"Market conditions" means business and system related issues used to determine if materials can be targeted, collected, and delivered to an interim or end market in an efficient manner. Issues may include the cost of collection, storage and preparation or both; the cost of transportation; accessible volumes of materials targeted for recycling; market value of materials targeted for collection/recycling; and distance to viable markets.

"Materials recovery facility" means, for the purpose of this regulation, a facility for the collection, processing, and marketing of recyclable materials including metal, paper, plastics, and glass.

"Mulch" means woody waste consisting of stumps, trees, limbs, branches, bark, leaves, and other clean wood waste that has undergone size reduction by grinding, shredding, or chipping, and is distributed to the general public for landscaping purposes or other horticultural uses, except composting as defined and regulated under the Solid Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-81).

"Municipal solid waste" or "MSW" means waste that is normally composed of residential, commercial, and institutional solid waste and residues derived from the combustion of these wastes.

"Nonmunicipal solid waste material" means waste that is not normally composed of residential, commercial, and institutional solid waste and residues derived from the combustion of these wastes.

"Permit" means the written permission of the director to own, operate, or construct a solid waste management facility.

"Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, a governmental body, a municipal corporation, or any other legal entity.

"Principal recyclable materials" or "PRMs" means paper, metal, plastic, glass, commingled, yard waste, wood, textiles, tires, used oil, used oil filters, used antifreeze, batteries, electronics, or material as may be approved by the director. Commingled materials refers to single stream collections of recyclables where sorting is done at a materials recovery facility.

"Recycling" means the process of separating a given waste material from the waste stream and processing it so that it may be used again as a raw material for a product, which may or may not be similar to the original product. For the purpose of this chapter, recycling shall not include processes that only involve size reduction.

"Recycling residue" means the (i) nonmetallic substances, including plastic, rubber, and insulation, which remain after a shredder has separated for purposes of recycling the ferrous and nonferrous metal from a motor vehicle, appliance, or other discarded metallic item and (ii) organic waste remaining after removal of metals, glass, plastics, and paper that are to be recycled as part of a resource recovery process for municipal solid waste resulting in the production of a refuse derived fuel.

"Regional boundary" means the boundary defining an area of land that will be a unit for the purpose of developing a waste management plan and is established in accordance with 9VAC20-130-92 through 9VAC20-130-100.

"Regulated medical waste" means solid wastes so defined by the Regulated Medical Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-121) as promulgated by the Virginia Waste Management Board.

"Residential waste" means any waste material, including garbage, trash, and refuse, derived from households. Households include single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds, and day-use recreation areas. Residential wastes do not include sanitary waste in septic tanks (septage) that is regulated by other state agencies.

"Resource recovery system" means a solid waste management system that provides for collection, separation, recycling, and recovery of energy or solid wastes, including disposal of nonrecoverable waste residues.

"Reuse" means the process of separating a given solid waste material from the waste stream and using it, without processing or changing its form, other than size reduction, for the same or another end use.

"Sanitary landfill" means an engineered land burial facility for the disposal of household waste, which is so located, designed, constructed, and operated to contain and isolate the waste so that it does not pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment. A sanitary landfill also may receive other types of solid wastes, such as commercial solid waste, nonhazardous sludge, hazardous waste from very small quantity generators, construction demolition debris, and nonhazardous industrial solid waste.

"Site" means all land and structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on them used for treating, storing, and disposing of solid waste. This term includes adjacent land within the facility boundary used for the utility systems such as repair, storage, shipping or processing areas, or other areas incident to the management of solid waste. (Note: This term includes all sites whether they are planned and managed facilities or open dumps.)

"Sludge" means any solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated from a public, municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility.

"Solid waste" means any of those materials defined as "solid waste" in the Solid Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-81).

"Solid waste management plan" means a plan submitted by a solid waste planning unit in accordance with the requirements of this chapter.

"Solid waste planning unit" means each region or locality that submits a solid waste management plan.

"Solid waste management facility" means a site used for planned treating, storing, or disposing of solid waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposal units.

"Source reduction" means any action that reduces or eliminates the generation of waste at the source, usually within a process. Source reduction measures include process modifications, feedstock substitutions, improvements in feedstock purity, improvements in housekeeping and management practices, increases in the efficiency of machinery, and recycling within a process. Source reduction minimizes the material that must be managed by waste disposal or nondisposal options by creating less waste. "Source reduction" is also called "waste prevention," "waste minimization," or "waste reduction."

"Source separation" means separation of recyclable materials by the waste generator of materials that are collected for use, reuse, reclamation, or recycling.

"Tons" means 2,000 pounds.

"Transfer station" means any solid waste storage or collection facility at which solid waste is transferred from collection vehicles to haulage vehicles for transportation to a central solid waste management facility for disposal, incineration, or resource recovery.

"Vegetative waste" means decomposable materials generated by yard and lawn care or land-clearing activities and includes, but is not limited to, leaves, grass trimmings, and woody wastes such as shrub and tree prunings, bark, limbs, roots, and stumps. For more detail see the Solid Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-81).

"Waste exchange" means any system to identify sources of wastes with potential for use, reuse, recycling, or reclamation and to facilitate its acquisition by persons who reuse, recycle, or reclaim it, with a provision for maintaining confidentiality of trade secrets.

"Yard waste" means decomposable waste materials generated by yard and lawn care and includes leaves, grass trimmings, brush, wood chips, and shrub and tree trimmings. Yard waste shall not include roots or stumps that exceed six inches in diameter.