§ 17-23. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Abandoned vehicle means a vehicle that applicable state laws deem to have been abandoned.

Agricultural solid waste means all organic waste products that are generated from farm production operations of field crops, orchards, and animals.

Bulky waste means nonputrescible household, institutional, and light commercial waste products such as discarded furniture, appliances, vehicle tires and other components, bicycles, metal and fiber cable and rope, large crates and packing boxes, large parts of trees, and other similar items whose large size, density, weight, or special shape precludes, restricts, or otherwise complicates their handling by conventional compactor-type refuse collection vehicles, processing, or disposal methods.

Collection means the act of removing solid waste from the storage point at the source of generation.

Collection service means a public or private operation engaged in the collection and transportation of solid waste materials.

Commercial solid waste means solid waste generated by stores, single offices, multiple-office complexes, institutions, hotels, motels, cafeterias, restaurants, and other activities that do not actually turn out a product. This definition is also applicable to places of residence having three or more dwelling units such as apartment buildings and mobile home courts.

Composting means the process of biochemical degradation of organic waste under controlled conditions.

Dead animals means animals that have died from any cause except those slaughtered for human consumption.

Disposal means the orderly process of discarding useless or unwanted material in a beneficial or nonharmful manner.

Disposal facilities means the physical components or the disposal system, such as transfer conveyances, transfer stations, processing plants, and landfills.

Disposal system means the means by which the disposal of solid waste material is accomplished.

Dump means a land site where solid waste is disposed of in a manner that does not protect the environment.

Garbage means all normal and usual household and institutional waste products that are placed in approved containers for collection purposes and are usually composed of a mixture of putrescible, nonputrescible, combustible materials, such as organic wastes from food preparation and consumption, wrapping and packaging materials, metal, glass and plastic containers, and other items. This definition also applies to similar waste products from commercial establishments such as restaurants, cafeterias, schools, hospitals and places of residence having three or more dwelling units.

Generation means the act or process of producing solid waste.

Hazardous waste means those wastes such as toxic, radioactive, or pathogenic substances which require special handling to avoid illness or injury to persons or damage to property including but not limited to petroleum wastes; paints; plastics explosives; asbestos fibers; pathogenic wastes from hospitals, sanatoriums, nursing homes, clinics and veterinary hospital; offal and vegetable wastes; and the like which, by virtue or their particular composition and inherent dangers, require handling and disposal methods different from those used for other waste material. In the way of further explanation, hazardous waste is solid waste that may, by itself or in combination with other solid waste, be infectious, explosive, poisonous, caustic, or toxic or otherwise dangerous or injurious to humans, plant, or animal life. Household solid waste normally contains some hazardous materials, but because such materials are usually present in very small quantities, their safe disposal either in an approved landfill or incinerator presents no special problem. Therefore, household waste is not considered to be hazardous waste as used in this article.

Household solid waste means all solid waste that normally originates in a residential environment. This definition is applicable to the solid waste from a place of residence with one or two dwelling units. Solid waste from a place of residence having three or more dwelling units is defined as commercial solid waste.

Incinerator means a furnace designed for the volume reduction of solid waste by burning in a firebox with proper controls and temperature range with stack emissions which do not exceed any air pollution control limits established by local, state, or federal laws and regulations.

Industrial solid waste means all solid waste products except hazardous wastes, resulting from industrial operations, both onshore and offshore, public and private, and including demolition, construction, fabrication, process, street and alley, and miscellaneous waste. This definition also includes demolition and construction wastes generated in a residential and commercial environment.

Institutional solid waste means solid waste origination from educational, health care, and research facilities such as schools, hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, and similar establishments.

Land filling means a method of disposing of solid waste on land, without creating nuisances or hazards to public health, by utilizing the principles of engineering to confine the solid wastes to the smallest practical area, to reduce the solid wastes to the smallest practical volume, and to cover such wastes with earth, all in a manner approved by the state department of health.

Landfill means a deposit of milled (or shredded) waste materials and/or nonshredded waste materials which is placed at a selected and prepared site in a manner described under the term "land filling."

Littering means the casting, depositing, dropping, scattering, sweeping, or leaving, or causing of any such acts of any waste matter of any kind on any private or public, water or land premises, in other than appropriate storage containers or areas designated for such purposes.

Milling (or shredding) process means a mechanical process in which the as-collected garbage and rubbish is shredded or ground into small pieces. During the process glass objects are shattered, metal cans are cut and flattened, and putrescible materials are dispersed and distributed throughout the mixture, thereby creating a conglomerate mass having a minimum of voids, which permits higher compacted densities in the landfill, thereby reducing the space requirements, a food value too low for rodents to survive, and which is unattractive to flies and will not support internal combustion in the landfill.

Natural resources means materials which have useful physical or chemical properties which exist, unused, in nature.

Nonputrescible solid waste means materials that do not contain organic matter that is subject to rapid decomposition by fungi and bacteria.

Offal waste means waste animal, land, or marine matter from establishments such as butcher shops, slaughterhouses, food processing and packing plants, rendering plants, and fertilizer plants.

Open burning means any fire- or smoke-producing process not conducted in a boiler plant, furnace, high temperature processing unit, incinerator, or flame, or in any such equipment primarily designed for the combustion of fuel or waste material which is not approved by the state department of health.

Open dumping means the depositing of solid waste into a body or stream of water or onto the surface of the ground at a location which is not designed or operated to guard against environmental pollution, has inadequate or no management, and may have associated with it such problems as vector breeding, fires, air pollution, water pollution, odors, unsightliness, waste land, nuisances, disease and accident potentials, and which is not approved by the state department of health.

Pollution means the condition caused by the presence in the environment of substances of such character and in such quantities that the quality of the environment is impaired or rendered offensive to life.

Processing means any method, system, or other treatment designed to change the physical form or chemical content of solid waste.

Putrescible solid waste means solid waste materials containing organic matter that is subject to rapid decomposition by fungi and bacteria, such as food wastes and dead animals.

Recycling means the process by which recovered resources are transformed into new products in such a manner that the original products lose their identity.

Rendering means a process of recovering fatty substances from animal parts by heat treatment, extraction, and distillation.

Resource recovery means the process of obtaining material or energy resources from solid waste. Synonyms: extraction, reclamation, salvage.

Rubbish means a mixture of small, nonputrescible household, institutional, and commercial waste products containing a high percentage of combustible materials such as paper, cardboard, plastics, wood scrap, foliage, grass, and leaves, and including noncombustibles such as glass, crockery, cans, and light scrap metals. Synonym: trash.

Salvaging means the controlled removal of material from a solid waste storage, transfer, processing, or disposal site for authorized reuse or recycling.

Scavenging means the uncontrolled removal of material from a solid waste storage, transfer, processing, or disposal site.

Scrap means discarded or rejected material or parts of material that result from manufacturing operations and are suitable for reprocessing or recycling.

Separation means the systematic division of solid waste into designated components.

Sewage treatment residue means coarse screenings, grit, scum, and sludge from sewage treatment plants and pumpings from cesspools, septic tanks, or grease traps.

Solid waste means useless, unwanted, or discarded materials with insufficient liquid content to be free-flowing, that results from domestic, industrial, commercial, agricultural, governmental, and community operations which require proper storage, collection, transportation, and disposal to prevent environmental pollution inimical to public health, safety, and welfare. Solid waste does not include sewage, earth, or material used to fill land in accordance with construction codes, mining residues, slag, and dissolved or suspended solids in industrial waste water effluents which are not acceptable for disposal in a sanitary sewage treatment system.

Solid waste management means the purposeful, systematic control of the storage, collection, transport, separation, processing, recovery, and disposal of solid waste.

Solid waste management system means the entire process of storage, collection, transportation, processing, and disposal of solid waste by any person engaging in such process as a business or by any municipality, authority, parish, or a combination thereof.

Solid waste storage means the handling and holding of solid waste, in an approved manner, near the point of generation, pending collection.

Solid waste transportation means the conveying of solid waste from one place to another by means of a vehicle, rail car, water vessel, conveyor, or other means.

Stable refuse means the body waste of animals and fowl and cleanings and waste foodstuffs from all barns, stables, corrals, or pens used for stabling, caging, or penning of animals or fowl.

Transfer station means a site at which solid waste is assembled and temporarily deposited after collection and from which it is transported to a different location for processing and/or disposal.

Vector (of disease) means an animal or insect which transmits infectious diseases from one person or animal to another by biting the skin or mucous membrane or by depositing infective material on the skin or food or on another object.

Vegetable waste means putrescible solid waste resulting from the processing of plants for food by commercial establishments such as canneries. This definition does not include waste products resulting from the preparation and consumption of food in places such as cafeterias and restaurants.

(Code 1969, § 10-18)

Cross reference

Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.