49-31-9 - Definitions.
§ 49-31-9. Definitions.
For purposes of this chapter the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section or in Section 17-17-3 unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(a) "Department" means the Department of Environmental Quality.
(b) "EPCRA" means the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act, Public Law 99-499, as amended.
(c) "Facility operator" means an operator of a facility required to file a report of toxic chemical releases under Section 313 of EPCRA.
(d) "Generator" means any person whose act or process produces waste.
(e) "Multimedia" means all environmental media including, but not limited to air, water and land.
(f) "Pollution prevention" means any action taken by business, industry, government or individual consumers to conserve natural resources while providing and using needed products in a manner that prevents or reduces the generation, disposal or release of pollutants to the environment. Pollution prevention does not include dewatering, dilution or evaporation before handling, release, storage, treatment or disposal of hazardous waste.
(g) "Recovered materials" means those materials having known recycling potential, which can be feasibly recycled and have been diverted or removed from the waste stream for sale, use or reuse, by separation, collection or processing.
(h) "Recyclable materials" means those materials which are reasonably capable of being recycled and which would otherwise be processed or disposed of as waste.
(i) "Recycling" means the use, reuse or reclamation of a waste. Recycling does not include the burning of waste as a fuel for the recovery of energy or the use of waste treatment technologies.
(j) "Waste" means sewage, industrial wastes, oil field wastes, and all other liquid, gaseous, solid or other substances which may pollute the lands, waters or air of the state.
(k) "Waste minimization" means the reduction, to the extent feasible, of waste that is generated or subsequently treated, stored or disposed of. It includes any source reduction or recycling activity undertaken by a generator or facility operator that results in either (i) the reduction of total volume or quantity of waste, or (ii) the reduction of toxicity or other characteristics of hazardous waste, or both, so long as the reduction does not result in the displacement of pollutants from one medium to another and is consistent with the goal of minimizing present and future threats to human health and the environment.
Sources: Laws, 1990, ch. 507, § 5; Laws, 1994, ch. 637 § 5, eff from and after July 1, 1994.