§ 417-62. Definitions

As used in this chapter, all terms below shall have the following meanings:

(1) "Composting" means the controlled biological decomposition of organic matter through active management to produce a stable humus-rich material.

(2) "Conditionally exempt generator" (CEG) means a generator of hazardous waste which is conditionally exempted from certain provisions of the Vermont Hazardous Waste Management Regulations.

(3) "Discrete disposal facilities" means all facilities other than diffuse disposal facilities that are used for the disposal of solid wastes. A discrete disposal facility may include one or more landfill units.

(4) "Hazardous waste" means any waste or combination of wastes of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semisolid form, including those which are toxic, corrosive, ignitable, reactive, strong sensitizers, or which generate pressure through decomposition, heat, or other means which in the judgment of the Secretary of Natural Resources may cause or contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness, taking into account the toxicity of such waste, its persistence and degradability in nature, its potential for assimilation or concentration in tissue, and other factors that may otherwise cause or contribute to adverse acute or chronic effects on the health of persons or other living organisms, or any matter which may have an unusually destructive effect on water quality if discharged to ground or surface waters of the State. All special nuclear, source, or by-product material, as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, is specifically excluded from this definition.

(5) "Recyclable materials" means solid waste which may be reclaimed or processed so that it may be used in the production of materials or products.

(6) "Recycle" means the process of utilizing solid waste for the production of materials or products, but shall not include processing solid waste to produce energy or fuel products.

(7) "Recycling facility" means a facility that accepts, aggregates, stores, or processes recyclable materials.

(8) "Resource recovery facility" means a waste-to-energy facility.

(9) "Sludge" means any solid, semisolid, or liquid generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant or process, water supply treatment plant, air pollution control facility, or any other such waste having similar characteristics and effects.

(10) "Solid waste" means any discarded garbage, refuse, septage, or sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply plant, or pollution control facility, and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, or agricultural operations and from community activities but does not include animal manure and absorbent bedding used for soil enrichment or solid or dissolved materials in industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under the Water Pollution Control Act, 10 V.S.A. chapter 47. For the purposes of this chapter, solid waste that is also hazardous waste is subject to further regulation under the Vermont Hazardous Waste Management Regulations.

(11) "Solid waste management" means the activities that result in the storage, transportation, transfer, or treatment of solid waste or recyclable materials or in the disposal of solid waste.

(12) "Transfer station" means a solid waste management facility where solid waste is collected, aggregated, sorted, stored, or processed for the purpose of subsequent transfer to another solid waste management facility for further processing, treatment, transfer, or disposal.

(13) "Treatment" means any method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any hazardous or solid waste so as to neutralize such waste or so as to recover energy or material resources from the waste or so as to render such waste safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, or reduced in volume or, for hazardous wastes, so as to render such waste nonhazardous. (Amended 2011, No. M-17 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. July 12, 2012.)