Sec. 219-1.1. Definitions

(a) For the purpose of this Part and each of the Subparts of this Part, the general definitions of Parts 200 and 201 of this Title apply.

(b) For the purpose of this Part, the following definitions also apply to Subpart 219-2 through Subpart 219-6:

(1) Commercial waste. Solid waste generated by stores, offices, institutions, restaurants, warehouses, and nonmanufacturing activities at industrial facilities.

(2) Dioxin equivalent. Any combination or mix of polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo furans as defined in section 200.1(cx) of this Title.

(3) Hospital. Any facility which has an organized medical staff, maintains at least six inpatient beds, and where the primary function of the institution is to provide diagnostic and therapeutic patient services and continuous nursing care primarily to human inpatients who are not related and who stay on average in excess of 24 hours per admission. This definition does not include facilities maintained for the sole purpose of providing nursing or convalescent care to human patients who generally are not acutely ill but who require continuing medical supervision.

(4) Hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerator or HMIWI or HMIWI unit. Any device that combusts any amount of hospital waste and/or medical/infectious waste.

(5) Hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerator operator or HMIWI operator. Any person who operates, controls or supervises the day-to-day operation of an HMIWI.

(6) Hospital waste. Discards generated at a hospital, except unused items returned to the manufacturer. The definition of hospital waste does not include human corpses, remains, and anatomical parts that are intended for interment or cremation.

(7) Incinerator. Any structure or furnace in which the combustion of any amount of solid waste takes place alone or in conjunction with fossil fuel.

(8) Medical/infectious waste. Any waste generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals that is listed below:

(i) Cultures and stocks of infectious agents and associated biologicals, including: cultures from medical and pathological laboratories; cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories; wastes from the production of biologicals; discarded live and attenuated vaccines; and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix cultures.

(ii) Human pathological waste, including tissues, organs, and body parts and body fluids that are removed during surgery or autopsy, or other medical procedures, and specimens of body fluids and their containers.

(iii) Human blood and blood products including:

(a) liquid waste human blood;

(b) products of blood;

(c) items saturated and/or dripping with human blood; or

(d) items that were saturated and/or dripping with human blood that are now caked with dried human blood; including serum, plasma, and other blood components, and their containers, which were used or intended for use in either patient care, testing and laboratory analysis or the development of pharmaceuticals. Intravenous bags are also included in this category.

(iv) Sharps that have been used in animal or human patient care or treatment or in medical, research, or industrial laboratories, including hypodermic needles, syringes (with or without the attached needle), pasteur pipettes, scalpel blades, blood vials, needles with attached tubing, and culture dishes (regardless of presence of infectious agents). Also included are other types of broken or unbroken glassware that were in contact with infectious agent, such as used slides and cover slips.

(v) Animal waste including contaminated animal carcasses, body parts, and bedding of animals that were known to have been exposed to infectious agents during research (including research in veterinary hospitals), production of biologicals or testing of pharmaceuticals.

(vi) Isolation wastes including biological waste and discarded materials contaminated with blood, excretions, exudates, or secretions from humans who are isolated to protect others from certain highly communicable diseases, or isolated animals known to be infected with highly communicable diseases.

(vii) Unused sharps including the following unused, discarded sharps: hypodermic needles, suture needles, syringes, and scalpel blades.

The definition of medical/infectious waste does not include hazardous waste identified or listed under the regulations in Part 371 of this Title; household waste, as defined in 40 CFR 261.4(b)(1) (see Table 1, section 200.9 of this Title); ash from incineration of medical/infectious waste once the incineration process has been completed; human corpses, remains, and anatomical parts that are intended for interment or cremation; and domestic sewage materials.

(9) Municipal solid waste. Solid waste discarded from single and multiple family dwellings and other residential sources, similar types of materials discarded from institutional, commercial and industrial sources, and comingled biosolids. Municipal solid waste does not include hazardous waste as defined in Part 371 of this Title.

(10) Municipal solid waste incineration facility. A facility that is owned, operated, or utilized by, or under contract with, a municipality or political subdivision and which utilizes high temperature thermal destruction technologies, including combustion for the recovery of thermal value or for the disposal of municipal solid waste.

Note:

A municipal solid waste incineration facility may also be an infectious waste incineration facility.

(11) Pathological waste. Waste material consisting of human and animal remains, anatomical parts, and/or tissue, the bags and containers used to collect and transport the waste material, and any incidental animal bedding.

(12) Private solid waste incineration facility. Any facility, other than a municipal solid waste facility, that processes municipal solid waste, or any fuels derived from municipal solid waste using thermal destruction technologies, with or without energy recovery.

(13) Solid waste.

(i) Except as described in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph, discarded materials including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, municipal, commercial, institutional, mining or agricultural operations or from residential activities including materials that are recycled or that may have value.

(ii) A material is considered discarded if it is spent, worthless, or in excess to the generator, and is:

(a) thermally, physically, chemically or biologically processed;

(b) disposed of through discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placement into or on any land or water so that the material or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into groundwater or surface water; or

(c) accumulated or transferred instead of or before being processed or disposed.

(iii) The following are not solid waste for the purposes of this Part:

(a) materials that are intended for reuse for their original function, without processing, such as materials at a garage sale, consignment shop, textile collection location or similar venue;

(b) materials that are incorporated into food products for human consumption;

(c) unadulterated wood generated from sources other than construction and demolition that is burned in campfires, ceremonial burns, cooking fires, wood stoves, or other similar uses;

(d) any mixture of domestic sewage and other wastes that pass through a sewer system to a publicly or privately owned treatment works for treatment;

(e) industrial wastewater discharges that are point source discharges subject to permits under Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) article 17;

(f) irrigation return flows;

(g) materials subject to in-situ mining techniques which are not removed from the ground as part of the extraction process;

(h) crumb rubber;

(i) materials that are used in accordance with a determination by the department pursuant to the provisions of section 360.12 of this Title;

(j) materials that are used for artificial reefs in compliance with applicable water quality criteria;

(k) material removed from the waters of the State and placed or disposed in compliance with a permit issued under ECL article 15, 24, 25, or 34 or a water quality certification issued under section 401 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to the extent that disposal of the material is regulated by such permit or certification. However, any disposal not regulated by such permit remains subject to regulation under Parts 360, 361, 362, 363, and 365 of this Title. Dredged or excavated material generated by a manufacturing or industrial process is industrial waste, and the treatment, storage, transfer, or disposal of the material is subject to regulation under Parts 360 to 365 of this Title; and

(l) waste samples received at a laboratory or educational institution for analysis of constituents.