NYS Consolidated Law
Environmental Conservation Law
 
§ 27-0107. Local solid waste management plans; purpose and scope.
 
1. Purpose and scope. 
 
 (a) A planning unit may undertake and complete a timely process leading to a local solid waste management plan for such unit for at least a ten-year period. For purposes of this section and section 27-0109 of this article, "planning unit" shall mean a county, two or more counties acting jointly, a local government agency or authority established pursuant to state law for the purposes of managing solid waste, any city located in the county of Nassau, or two or more other municipalities which the department determines to be capable of implementing a regional solid waste management program.
 
 (b) The local solid waste management plan shall:
 (i) characterize the solid waste stream to be managed in the planning period;
 (ii) assess existing and alternate proposed solid waste management programs and facilities;
 (iii) address to the maximum extent practicable the comments and views expressed by concerned governmental, environmental, commercial and industrial interests and the public on the waste reduction, recycling, reuse and disposal alternatives;
 (iv) identify the parties with responsibility to implement each element of the plan and the steps which must be undertaken by each;
 (v) set forth a timetable for implementing the plan;
 (vi) describe the participation in the preparation of the plan of each municipality which has chosen to participate in such preparation; and
 (vii) describe (A) measures undertaken by the municipalities participating in the planning unit to secure participation of neighboring jurisdictions, (B) the limitations, if any, imposed by the proposed plan on solid waste management alternatives available to such neighboring jurisdictions, and (C) alternatives which would be available if a local solid waste management plan including such jurisdictions were prepared. Specific written suggestions received from neighboring jurisdictions shall be summarized and reflected in the plan.
 
 (c) Such plan shall take into account the objectives of the state solid waste management policy, provide for or take into account management of all solid waste within the planning unit, and embody, as may be appropriate to the circumstances, sound principles of solid waste management, natural resources conservation, energy production, and employment creating opportunities.
 
 (d) Such plan is authorized to include and shall utilize, to the extent practicable, prepared resource materials or generic analyses so as to minimize the development and use of original data to degrees of detail not pertinent to the circumstances.
 
 (e) A plan may be submitted to the department by a planning unit on its own initiative or upon the request of the participating municipalities. The department shall review such plan and advise the planning unit that:
 (i) the plan contains the elements set forth in paragraph (b) of this subdivision. Thereafter such plan shall become the local solid waste management plan in effect for such municipalities; or
 (ii) the plan as submitted does not contain the elements set forth in paragraph (b) of this subdivision. The department shall state the reasons for its determination under this subparagraph.
 
 (f) For purposes of this subdivision, the department shall not serve as lead agency as defined in subdivision six of section 8-0111 of this chapter.
 
 (g) For purposes of this section, "solid waste" shall have the same meaning as is found in subdivision one of section 27-0701 of this article, but shall not include source, special nuclear or by-product material as defined in the atomic energy act of 1954, as amended, or hazardous waste which appears on the list or satisfies the characteristics of hazardous waste promulgated pursuant to section 27-0903 of this article or, low level radioactive waste as defined in section 29-0101 of this chapter.

2. The department shall promulgate rules and regulations in accordance with the provisions of the state administrative procedure act for the implementation of this section and section 27-0109 of this article.

 
 
§ 27-0103. State solid waste management plan.
 
 1. For the purposes of this article, the department is designated as the official state agency with the responsibility for preparing and updating the New York state solid waste management plan (hereinafter referred to as the "plan") consistent with the state resource recovery policies declared in the New York state resource recovery policy act, with this title, with titles five and seven of this article, and with the federal "Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976" and amendments thereto.
 
 2. The commissioner shall, with the advice of the state solid waste management board established pursuant to section 27-0702 of this article, biennially review the status of programs and information contained within the plan and make recommendations for legislation or other state action related to:
 
 (a) comprehensive procurement policies applicable to state agencies and public authorities which will give maximum feasible encouragement to the procurement of products manufactured with stated levels of secondary materials;
 (b) incentives for developing and expanding markets for promoting the return of secondary materials and other recovered resources to productive use; and
 (c) analysis of packaging and other various components of the waste stream to propose changes which will conserve energy and reduce solid waste generation. In making such recommendations and reviewing said plans the
 commissioner shall take into account sound principles of solid waste management and relevant considerations of natural resources conservation, energy production and employment creating opportunities and shall further take into account any relevant changes in federal and state laws, any local solid waste management plans developed pursuant to section 27-0107 of this article, and the experience of agencies, local governments, private industry, the public and the results of the public
 participation contemplated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Guidelines for Public Participation in Programs under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (40 CFR Part 25). On the basis of that review, the commissioner shall modify the plan, as appropriate, and, not later than March thirty-first of every other year, shall file such modified plan with the governor and the legislature.
 
 3. Amendments to the plan shall assure current attention to:
 
 (a) an identification of the boundaries of those regions within the state which, as a result of urban concentration, geographic conditions, secondary materials markets, technological feasibility, and other factors, are appropriate for carrying out regional solid waste management;
 (b) identification of which solid waste functions will be planned for and carried out by which local authorities, regional authorities, state authorities, agencies and public benefit corporations, giving due consideration to the compatibility of the planning and implementing functions which can be combined at the local level;
 (c) identification of local, regional and state authorities and agencies which shall have responsibility for the solid waste functions identified in the plan which shall be managed and carried out by or on behalf of such entities or any combination thereof, giving due consideration to the compatibility of the planning and implementing functions which can be combined at the local level;
 (c-1) identification of strategies, programs and practices, in consultation with the commissioner of the office of general services, to be undertaken by the state in the management of solid waste generated by state agencies, to ensure the attainment by the state of statewide solid waste reduction and recycling goals established in the plan. Using information obtained from individual state agencies, the plan shall set forth dates by which the state of New York as a generator of solid waste is to recover progressively increasing amounts of recyclable materials from its waste stream and attain a reduction in its waste stream, consistent with the statewide waste reduction and recycling goals identified in the plan.

(d) identification of the environmental impacts including, but not limited to, air or water pollution, or the generation of hazardous waste resulting from the utilization of solid waste management technologies;

(e) identification and projections of changes in the waste stream that are likely to occur during the useful life of a proposed facility, on a statewide and regional basis, during the projected planning period;

(f) the status of solid waste management activities and capacity, and projected special needs within the state;

(g) an assessment of future programs and resource needs to effectuate the purposes of such plan;

(h) an assessment of alternative resource recovery practices including but not limited to source separation, waste volume reduction, community recycling centers and sanitary landfill or other environmentally sound disposal manner or practice;

(i) any local solid waste management plan submitted to the commissioner by or on behalf of any municipality;

(j) legislative recommendations appropriate to effectuate the purposes of this title; and

(k) any other recommendations as may be appropriate.

4. In the case of any region which, pursuant to the federal "Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976", would be located in two or more states, the commissioner shall include in the plan an identification of such regions and the function to be performed thereby and shall submit to the governor and the legislature recommendations for the development and enactment of the interstate agreements necessary to carry out the purposes of this article.

5. In connection with developing and updating the plan, the commissioner may request and shall receive from any department, division, board, bureau, commission or other agency of the state or any political subdivision thereof or any public authority such assistance and data as may be reasonably necessary to enable the commissioner to carry out his responsibilities under this section. In making such request, the commissioner shall consult and cooperate with such

municipality or other public body to ensure against unnecessary duplication of effort or other administrative inefficiency.

§ 27-0702. Solid waste management board.

 
 1. There is hereby created within the department the state solid waste management board hereinafter referred to as the "board". The board shall consist of a total of fifteen members and shall include the commissioners of environmental conservation, health and economic development or a deputy commissioner of such department as designated by the commissioner thereof. The board's twelve at-large members shall be appointed by the governor. Two such appointments shall be upon recommendation of the temporary president of the senate, two such appointments shall be upon recommendation of the  speaker of the assembly, one such appointment shall be upon recommendation of the minority leader of the senate and one such appointment shall be upon recommendation of the minority leader of the assembly. Of the remaining six appointments,  three of the at-large members shall be a representative of local government representative of different
 geographic areas of the state, two shall be representative of private industry which provides solid waste management services or deals in secondary materials, and one shall be representative of organizations whose prime function is the protection of health or environmental resources. None of the members so appointed shall be officers or employees of any state department or agency and each shall be, by professional training or experience and attainment, qualified to analyze and interpret matters pertaining to solid waste management.
 
 2. (a) The commissioner shall serve as chairman of the board provided, however, that his designee may not preside as chairman in his absence. The board shall elect a vice chairman from among the appointed members to act in the absence of the chairman.
 (b) Each of the twelve at-large members appointed by the governor shall hold office for a term of two years or until such time as the board shall cease to exist or until such member shall resign or be removed in the manner provided by law, except that one of the initial appointments made on the recommendation of the temporary president of the senate, one of the initial appointments made on the recommendation of the speaker of the assembly and four of the initial remaining appointments of the governor shall be for a term of three years. Any vacancy on the board shall be filled by appointment pursuant to this section.
 
 3. The members of the board shall serve without compensation for their services as members of the board, except that members shall be allowed their necessary and actual expenses incurred in the performance of their duties under this section.
 
 4. The board shall have the power, duty and responsibility to:
 (a) Serve as a working forum for the exchange of views, concerns, ideas, information and recommendations relating to implementation of the state solid waste management policy articulated in section 27-0106 of this article, market development and secondary materials, waste reduction and recycling programs established pursuant to sections one hundred eighty-one and one hundred eighty-one-b of the economic development law, technical assistance, planning and any other solid
 waste management programs, policies and plans of the department or any other state agency or authority;
 (b) Request the attendance at any meeting of the board of such personnel of the department or of other state agencies or authorities, as may be necessary to provide information and otherwise assist the board and request such information from the department or other state agencies or authorities as the board may require in fulfilling its responsibility under this section;
 (c) Monitor, review and make recommendations concerning:
 (i) the objectives, methods and strategies of the department and other state agencies or authorities in implementing and pursuing programs designed to meet the objectives of the state solid waste management policy;

(ii) the objectives, methods and strategies of the department and other state agencies and authorities in implementing the programs of assistance to local governments in planning and implementing solid waste management programs; and

(iii) the objectives, methods and strategies of the department and the department of economic development to promote waste reduction through regulatory activities, interstate cooperation, and assistance to local governments and businesses;

(d) Coordinate its activities with appropriate boards and advisory bodies of the state or other agencies with related responsibilities, including the board of operating requirements established pursuant to section 19-0306 of this chapter and the state environmental board established pursuant to article five of this chapter;

(e) Study and make recommendations concerning programs and activities that the department, and other agencies or authorities as may be appropriate, could undertake to provide information for the public on how locally proposed or operated facilities conform with regulatory requirements and the protections afforded thereby;

(f) Request and receive, upon reasonable notice, reports from state agencies and public authorities concerning segments of the waste stream posing particular problems in disposal, recycling and reuse and, within six months of the receipt of each such report, submit its recommendations to the governor and the legislature concerning such report;

(g) Make recommendations to the governor and the legislature, no later than one year after the effective date of this subdivision, concerning incentives for host communities of solid waste management facilities. Such incentives may include, but need not be limited to, ways to protect against decreases in property values, rate structures which could benefit residents of the host community and mechanisms to address local concerns during facility design and operation; and

(h) Perform other activities or services as may be necessary to fulfill the purposes of this section.

5. Based upon its monitoring, reviewing and other information available to it, the board shall report to the governor and the legislature on or before October first of each year its assessment with comments and recommendations regarding solid waste management programs, their implementation, available funding and resources, and the need for steps to assure the future availability of funding.

6. (a) The board shall:

(i) meet at least quarterly;

(ii) keep a record of its proceedings; and

(iii) determine the rules of its own procedures.

(b) Eight members of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business of the board.

7. Staff services, including recording of board proceedings, shall be performed by personnel of the department, or such state departments or agencies as the chairman deems appropriate or desirable.

 
NYC Administrative Code
 
 § 16-140 Solid Waste Management Plan. 
 
 (a) No final solid waste management plan for the city shall be submitted pursuant to article twenty-seven of the environmental conservation law unless such submission has been authorized by the council by local law, except as
 provided in subdivisions c, d and e of this section.
 (b) A draft solid waste management plan for the city which is to be submitted pursuant to article twenty-seven of the environmental conservation law shall be presented to the council at or before the time of such submission, but in no event later than the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred ninety-two. Any comments by the New York State department of environmental conservation shall be transmitted to the council immediately upon their receipt.
 (c) A proposed final solid waste management plan shall be presented to the council within forty-five days after the receipt of comments by the New York State department of environmental conservation but in no event later than the twenty-sixth day of June, nineteen hundred ninety-two. The council shall, not later than the thirty-first day of August, nineteen hundred ninety-two, pass a local law which either grants or denies the authority for the submission of a proposed final solid waste
 management plan for the city.
 (d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision c of this section, in the event that on or before the tenth day of July, nineteen hundred ninety-two, the council passes a local law which denies the authority for the submission of a proposed final solid waste management plan for the city pursuant to article twenty-seven of the environmental conservation law and the mayor disapproves such law, such proposed plan shall not be submitted until either two-thirds of all the members of the council have voted whether to repass such local law, or the period within which such repassing may occur has expired, pursuant to section thirty-seven of the charter. In the event that such local law is repassed by a two-thirds vote of all the members of the council, such proposed plan shall not be submitted.
 (e) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivisions a and c of this section, in the event the council does not act in accordance with subdivision c of this section, such proposed final solid waste management plan may be submitted pursuant to article twenty-seven of the environmental conservation law.

§ 16-303 Definitions. 
 
 When used in this chapter:
 a. "Buy-back center" means a recycling center that purchases and may otherwise accept recyclable materials from the public for the purpose of recycling such materials.
 b. "Department-collected solid waste" means all solid waste that the department and its contractors collect and all solid waste that the department receives for free disposal.
 c. "Department-disposed of solid waste" means all solid waste, including department-collected solid waste, disposed of at a department landfill, incinerator, resource recovery facility or other waste disposal facility owned, operated or used by the department.
 d. "Drop-off center" means a recycling center that accepts and may otherwise purchase recyclable materials from the public for the purpose of recycling such materials.
 e. "Household" means a single dwelling or a residential unit within a multiple dwelling, hotel, motel, campsite, ranger station, public or private recreation area, or other residence.
 f. "Post-collection separation" means the dividing of solid waste into some or all of its component parts after the point of collection.
 g. "Post-consumer material" means only those products generated by a business or a consumer which have served their intended end uses, and which have been separated or diverted from solid waste for the purposes of collection, recycling and disposition.
 h. "Private carter" means any person required to be licensed or permitted pursuant to subchapter eighteen of chapter two of title twenty of this code.
 i. "Recyclable materials" means solid waste that may be separated, collected, processed, marketed and returned to the economy in the form of raw materials or products, including but not limited to types of metal, glass, paper, plastic, food waste, tires and yard waste.
 j. "Recycled" or "recycling" means any process by which recyclable materials are separated, collected, processed, marketed and returned to the economy in the form of raw materials or products.
 k. "Recycling center" means any facility operated to facilitate the separation, collection, processing or marketing of recyclable materials for reuse or sale.
 l. "Recycling district" means any borough or smaller geographic area the commissioner deems appropriate for the purpose of implementing this chapter.
 m. "Secondary material" means any material recovered from or otherwise destined for the waste stream, including but not limited to, post-consumer material, industrial scrap material and overstock or obsolete inventories from distributors, wholesalers and other companies, but such term does not include those materials and by-products generated from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process.
 n. "Solid waste" means all putrescible and non-putrescible materials or substances, except as described in paragraph three of this subdivision, that are discarded or rejected as being spent, useless, worthless or in excess to the owners at the time of such discard or rejection, including but not limited to garbage, refuse, industrial and commercial waste, rubbish, tires, ashes, contained gaseous material, incinerator residue, construction and demolition debris, discarded automobiles and offal.
 1. A material is discarded if it is abandoned by being:
 i. disposed of;
 ii. burned or incinerated, including being burned as a fuel for the purpose of recovering useable energy; or

iii. accumulated, stored, or physically, chemically or biologically treated (other than burned or incinerated) instead of or before being disposed of.

2. A material is disposed of if it is discharged, deposited, injected, dumped, spilled, leaked, or placed into or on any land or water so that such material or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into groundwater or surface water.

3. The following are not solid waste for the purpose of this chapter:

i. domestic sewage;

ii. any mixture of domestic sewage and other wastes that passes through a sewer system to a publicly owned treatment works for treatment, except any material that is introduced into such system in order to avoid the provisions of this chapter or the state regulations promulgated to regulate solid waste management facilities pursuant to 6 NYCRR Part 360;

iii. industrial wastewater discharges that are actual point source discharges subject to permits under article seventeen of the environmental conservation law; industrial wastewaters while they are being collected, stored, or treated before discharge and sludges that are generated by industrial wastewater treatment are solid wastes;

iv. irrigation return flows;

v. radioactive materials that are source, special nuclear, or by-product material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq.

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

vii. hazardous waste as defined in section 27-0901 of the environmental conservation law; and

viii. regulated medical waste or other medical waste as described in section 16-120.1 of this title.

o. "Source separation" means the dividing of solid waste into some or all of its component parts at the point of generation.

p. "Yard waste" means leaves, grass clippings, garden debris, vegetative residue that is recognizable as part of a plant or vegetable, small or chipped branches, and similar material.

§ 16-321 Disclosure requirements. 
 
 a. Whenever a person, other than a public servant, appointed to any advisory board created pursuant to this subchapter, engages in any business dealings with the department, or engages in business dealings with any other agency which relate to processing or disposal of solid waste or of waste described in paragraph three of subdivision m of section 16-303 of this chapter or to recycling, or has an interest in a firm which is engaged in such business dealings with the department or with such other agency, such person shall, prior to appointment, disclose the nature of such business dealings to the commissioner and to the body or officer appointing such person, and, after appointment, disclose the nature of such business dealings to the commissioner and to all other members of such board; provided that such person need not disclose the amount of such business dealings.
 b. When used in this section:
 1. "Advisory committee" means a committee, council, board or similar entity that is constituted to provide advice or recommendations to the city and which has no authority to take a final action on behalf of the city, to take any action that would have the effect of conditioning, limiting or requiring any final action by any other agency, or to take any action that is authorized by law.
 2. "Agency" means a city, county, borough or other office, position, administration, department, division, bureau, board, commission, authority, corporation, advisory committee or other agency of government, the expenses of which are paid in whole or in part from the city treasury, and shall include but not be limited to, the council, the offices of each elected official, the board of education, community school boards, community boards, the financial services corporation, the health and hospitals corporation, the public development corporation and the New York city housing authority, but shall not include any court or any corporation or institution maintaining or operating a public library, museum, botanical garden, arboretum, tomb, memorial building, aquarium, zoological garden or similar facility.
 3. "Blind trust" means a trust in which a candidate for any advisory board created pursuant to this subchapter or a member of such board, or the spouse or unemancipated child of such candidate or member, has a beneficial interest, the holdings and sources of income of which such candidate or member and such spouse  and unemancipated child have no knowledge, and the trustee of which shall have independent authority and discretion.
 4. "Business dealings" means any transaction involving the sale, purchase, rental, disposition or exchange of any goods,  services or property, and any performance of or litigation with respect to any of the foregoing, but shall not include any transaction involving the residence of any candidate for any advisory board created pursuant to this subchapter or of any member of such board, or any ministerial matter.
 5. "City" means the city of New York and includes an agency of the city.
 6. "Elected official" means a person holding office as mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough president or member of the council.
 7. "Firm" means a sole proprietorship, joint venture, partnership, corporation or any other form of enterprise, but shall not include a public benefit corporation or local development corporation.
 8. "Interest" means an ownership interest in a firm or a position with a firm.

9. "Ministerial matter" means an administrative act that is carried out in a prescribed manner and which does not involve substantial personal discretion.

10. "Ownership interest" means an interest in a firm that is held by a candidate for any advisory board created pursuant to this subchapter, or by a member of such board, or by the spouse, domestic partner, or unemancipated child of such candidate or member, which exceeds five percent of the firm or an investment of twenty-five thousand dollars in cash or other form of commitment, whichever is less, or five percent or twenty-five thousand dollars of the firm's indebtedness, whichever is less, and any lesser interest in a firm when such candidate or member, or such spouse, domestic partner, or unemancipated child, exercises managerial control or responsibility regarding any such firm, but shall not include interests held in any pension plan, deferred compensation plan or mutual fund, the investments of which are not controlled by such candidate or member, or by such spouse, domestic partner, or unemancipated child, or in any blind trust that holds or acquires an ownership interest.

11. "Position" means a position in a firm, such as an officer, director, trustee, employee or any management position, or as an attorney, agent, broker or consultant to the firm, which does not constitute an ownership interest in the firm.

12. "Public servant" means all officials, officers and employees of the city, including members of community boards and members of advisory committees, except unpaid members of advisory committees shall not be public servants.

13. "Spouse" means a husband or wife of a candidate for any advisory board created pursuant to this subchapter or of a member of such board who is not legally separated from such candidate or member.

14. "Unemancipated child" means any son, daughter, step-son or step-daughter who is under the age of eighteen, unmarried and living in the household of a candidate for any advisory board created pursuant to this subchapter or of the member of such board.