[Adopted 9-17-1996, effective 9-18-1996]
The following terms and words, when used in this chapter and in Article 15 of the Charter of the City of Buffalo, shall have the meaning and effect as follows:
To dispose of, burn or store an accumulation of solid waste.
A person authorized by another to act for the other person.
This term includes but is not limited to business representative,
servant, employee or a person under another's control.
Aluminum products and containers fabricated primarily of
aluminum and commonly used for beverages or other food products. This
term does not include regulated material.
The residue of the combustion of solid fuels.
Wood-pulp-based material which is usually smooth on both
sides but with no corrugated center. This term does not include material
with wax coating or regulated material.
Solid waste which is too large or too heavy to place in a
plastic bag or receptacle. This term includes discarded small household
furniture, bedding and mattresses, tree trimmings, hedge trimmings,
hot-water tanks, televisions and other bulk household material not
specifically prohibited by this chapter or by the rules and regulations
of the Commissioner. This term does not include regulated material.
Wood-pulp-based material which is not specifically prohibited
by this chapter and is normally used for packing, mailing, shipping
or containerizing goods, merchandise or other material. This term
does not include material with wax coating or which is soiled by any
substance other than water or regulated material.
Material which is apt to catch fire, capable of burning or
that will readily and safely burn in an incinerator and may be properly
disposed of there. This term includes but is not limited to garbage,
paper and wood.
All solid waste which is generated by, originating in or
around a commercial user. This term does not include regulated material.
Any person who owns or occupies a parcel of land in the City
of Buffalo which is designed for or occupied by the use other than
a one-, two- or three-family residential use. This term includes but
is not limited to multiresidential complex, government properties,
institutional properties, industrial properties, parking lots, parking
garages and parking ramps.
Any recycling program for commercial users other than the
multiresidential complex program.
The Commissioner of Street Sanitation or designee.
Material resulting from the construction, excavation, renovation,
equipping, remodeling, repair and demolition of structures, property
and roads and material consisting of vegetation resulting from land
clearing and grubbing, utility line maintenance and seasonal and storm-related
cleanup. This term includes but is not limited to bricks, concrete
and other masonry material, soil, rock, wood, wall coverings, plaster,
drywall, plumbing fixtures, nonasbestos insulation, roofing shingles,
asphaltic pavement, glass, plastics, electrical wiring and components,
carpeting, foam padding, linoleum and metals that are incidental to
construction, excavation, renovation, equipping, remodeling, repair
or demolition.
Any physical, chemical, biological or radiological substance
or matter that makes impure, infects, corrupts or otherwise contaminates
another substance or the environment.
Any cardboard which is usually smooth on both sides with
a corrugated center and commonly used for boxes. This term does not
include material with wax coating or regulated material.
The area between the sidewalk and the street curb, used for
deposit of solid waste for collection pursuant to this chapter.
Recycling programs pursuant to this chapter and regulations
thereunder for source separation of recyclable material and other
solid waste for collection, and the collection and disposal of the
separated recyclable material and other solid waste. This term includes
but is not limited to residential user collection, multiresidential
complex collection and commercial user collection programs.
Animal carcasses or parts thereof; and animals or parts thereof
that have died which are not otherwise hazardous, infectious, regulated
medical waste or regulated material. This term does not include the
following: animal carcasses or parts thereof from slaughterhouses;
animal carcasses or parts thereof specifically prohibited by this
chapter, rule or regulation of the Commissioner or other law; bodies
of human beings or parts thereof.
The Department of Street Sanitation unless otherwise specified
herein.
To abandon or recycle.
All material which is abandoned, recycled or inherently wastelike.
Any abandonment, discharge, deposit, injection, dumping,
spilling, leaking or placing of any waste into or on any land or water
so that such waste may enter the environment or be emitted into the
air or discharged into any waters, including groundwaters. This term
includes the thermal destruction of waste and the burning of such
waste as fuel for the purpose of recovering useable energy.
To place, deposit, leave, litter, throw, cast or otherwise
dump waste.
One or more rooms, in a building or portion thereof designed
or used exclusively as the residence or sleeping place of one or more
persons, designed for occupancy by one family for cooking, living
and sleeping purposes, as defined in Chapter 511, Zoning, of this
Code.
Any water, water vapor, land surface or subsurface, air,
fish, wildlife, biota and other natural resources.
Any and all statutes, laws, ordinances, rules, regulations,
permits, licenses, orders and/or directives of any governmental agency,
now or hereafter in effect, relating to the protection of the environment
or governing or regulating the use, storage, treatment, generation,
transportation, processing, handling, abandoning, production or disposal
of or release of any chemical, substance, waste, pollutant or contaminant.
Any commercial, manufacturing or industrial operation conducted
on real property or premises.
Any solid or liquid substance which acts by chemical reaction
to liberate, at high speed, heat and gas and create tremendous pressure.
An explosive substance, especially one used to produce an explosive
effect.
One or more persons living together in one dwelling unit
and maintaining a common household, including domestic servants and
gratuitous guests, together with boarders, roomers or lodgers not
in excess of the number allowed by Chapter 511, Zoning, of this Code
as an accessory use.
Any material, including but not limited to earth, rocks and
gravel, which is used for filling a hole, depression or landfill.
A channel provided for the excess flow of a stream.
Any putrescible animal and vegetable wastes, kitchen refuse
or table scraps resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking
and consumption of food. This term does not include regulated material.
An account for all financial resources of the City of Buffalo
except those required to be accounted for in another fund, including
an enterprise fund.
Any act or process of bringing into being, origination or
production of waste.
New and used glass, used mostly for food and beverage containers,
which have been rinsed and are free of food contamination. This term
includes clear (flint), green and brown (amber) colored glass bottles.
This term does not include ceramics, plate glass, auto glass, Pyrex,
leaded glass, mirrored glass or flat glass or regulated material.
Any federal, state, local or foreign government, political
subdivision, municipality, court, department, agency or other entity,
body, organization or group exercising any executive, legislative,
quasi-judicial, regulatory or administrative function of government.
The process of clearing ground of roots and stumps by digging
them up, clearing real property by digging or breaking up the soil.
Any material which is designated by the Commissioner or another
governmental agency and which, when transported in commerce in a particular
amount and form, may pose an unreasonable risk to health and safety
or property. This term includes but is not limited to explosive material,
radioactive material, etiologic agent, flammable or combustible liquid
or solid, poison, oxidizing or corrosive material and compressed gas.
Any waste or a combination of wastes, which, because of its
quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics,
may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality
or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible
illness or may pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human
health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported
or disposed of or otherwise managed. This term includes but is not
limited to explosive material, high-level or low-level radioactive
material, toxic substances, solid waste generated from the treatment,
storage or disposal of hazardous waste and those substances which
the Commissioner of Public Works or other governmental agencies has
identified as a hazardous waste pursuant to the above criteria and
has included on a list of hazardous waste promulgated by the Department
of Public Works or other governmental agency.
The County Health Commissioner of the County Department of Health, as defined in § 1-14 of this Code.
Any high-quality paper, including but is not limited to letterhead
paper, bond paper, typing paper, copier paper, notepad paper, writing
paper, envelopes without glassine windows, other nonglossy office
paper without plastic, computer printer paper, computer printout paper,
computer tab cards, onion skin paper and other high-quality paper.
This term does not include wax paper, plastic- or foil-coated paper,
styrofoam, wax-coated food and beverage containers, carbon paper,
blueprint paper, cardboard or paper which has been contaminated by
food or soiled by any substance other than water or regulated material.
Any highly radioactive material resulting from the reprocessing
of spent nuclear material, including but not limited to liquid waste
produced directly in reprocessing, any solid material derived from
such liquid waste that contains fission products in sufficient concentrations
and other highly radioactive material.
The area within a circumference of a one-fourth-mile radius from the point or points of emission of an odor from an establishment. To qualify as an impact area, at least 20% of the area within the circle drawn must include land designated for a residential use by Chapter 511, Zoning, Articles IV through and including VIII of this Code.
Any material which is not apt to catch fire, not capable
of burning or can not properly be disposed of in an incinerator by
routine combustion methods. This term includes but is not limited
to metal cans, bottles, floor-sweepings, crockery or glass, ashes,
products of combustion and all other incombustible waste. This term
does not include earth, sand, lumber, brick, stone, concrete, plaster
or other substances that may accumulate as a result of building, construction
or repair operations and manure.
Regulated material which is generated by or originates in
and around industrial processes and manufacturing operations or occurs
as a result of any industrial activity. This term includes but is
not limited to solids, such as solidified chemicals, paints or pigments,
the end or by-products of incineration ash, foundry sand and dredge
spoil; contained gaseous materials; hazardous waste; and any liquid,
sludge, septage, solid, semisolid substance or contained gaseous material
in which any of the foregoing is intermixed or absorbed or onto which
any of the foregoing is adhered. This term does not include refuse
originating from the commercial user's office operations or vegetative
yard waste resulting from tree or landscaping services.
Organisms which cause disease or have an adverse health impact
on human beings or animals.
Any waste which has been exposed to or is comprised of infectious
agents and must, therefore, be isolated as required by environmental
law or governmental agencies. This term includes but is not limited
to equipment, instruments, utensils and fomites (any substance that
may harbor or transmit pathogenic organisms) of a disposable nature
from the rooms of patients who are suspected to have or have been
diagnosed as having a communicable disease; laboratory wastes, such
as pathological specimens (e.g., all tissues, specimens of blood elements,
excreta and secretions obtained from patients or laboratory animals)
and disposable fomites attendant thereto; and surgical operating room
pathologic specimens and disposable fomites attendant thereto; as
well as similar disposable material generated by organizations, such
as medical institutions, dental institutions, biological research
organizations, laboratories and hospitals.
All solid waste which is generated by or originated in and
around educational, health-care, correctional, hospitals, public,
charitable, philanthropic and religious institutions and other institutional
facilities. This term does not include regulated material.
Any person and any principal, employee, agent or servant thereof engaged in, conducting, managing or carrying on the business of buying, selling or otherwise dealing in, either at wholesale or retail, any used or secondhand material of any kind, including but not limited to rags, paper, rubbish, bottles, glassware, bags, cloth, rubber, iron, brass or copper, as defined in Chapter 254, Junk Dealers and Pawnbrokers, of this Code.
The act or process of removing obstructions from the surface
and subsurface of real property.
Any disposal facility or part of a facility where waste is
placed in or on land and which is not a land treatment facility, a
surface impoundment or an injection well.
Discarded machine or device for performing a specific task.
This term includes stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, dryers, washing
machines, scrap metal and other large appliances not specifically
prohibited by this chapter or by the rules and regulations of the
Commissioner. This term does not include air conditioners, microwave-emitting
equipment, microwave ovens and televisions and regulated material.
To throw, dump, deposit, place or cause to be thrown, dumped,
placed or deposited, any waste.
Any radioactive material classified by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission as low-level radioactive waste.
Glossy paper products not specifically prohibited by this
chapter or the Commissioner. This term includes glossy catalogs and
other glossy paper. This term does not include regulated material.
Any real property which may be permanently, temporarily or
intermittently covered with freshwater or saltwater and commonly referred
to as "flood basins" or "flats," "meadows," "shrub swamps," "wooded
swamps," "swamps" or "bogs."
Containers fabricated primarily of steel or tin or bimetal
cans of steel, tin and/or aluminum. This term does not include aluminum
containers or regulated material.
Four or more dwelling units located on a single property
or continuous properties under common ownership, control or management.
The term includes but is not limited to an apartment, condominium
unit, townhouse cooperative unit, mobile home, living unit in a group
home and room or set of rooms in a boardinghouse. The term does not
include rooms within a one-family dwelling, motel or hotel.
Any recycling program for source separation, collection and
disposal of recyclable material from the owners and occupants of multiresidential
complexes.
Such property as the City designates to accept solid waste.
This term includes but is not limited to the city's transfer stations.
A plan adopted, pursuant to New York State Environmental
Conservation Law § 27-0101 et seq., establishing a scale
of state priorities for solid waste management.
Common, inexpensive machine-finished paper made chiefly from
wood pulp and mostly used for newspapers. This term includes but is
not limited to newspapers, newspaper advertisements, supplement, comics,
paperback books, telephone books and inserts. This term does not include
cardboard, magazines or regulated material.
Any person who owns, controls, resides, rents or otherwise
occupies real property or premises.
The minimum concentration of odor required to give the first
sensation of fetid or noisome odor to a person of average odor sensitivity.
A building containing one dwelling unit and designed or used
exclusively for occupancy by one family, as defined in Chapter 511,
Zoning, of this Code.
Any owner of real property or premises within the City or
another person who has agreed to be the owner's agent.
All high-grade paper, fine paper, newsprint, office paper,
school paper, nonglossy catalogs, junk mail and similar cellulosic
material. This term does not include wax paper, plastic- or foil-coated
paper, styrofoam, wax-coated food and beverage containers, carbon
paper, blueprint paper, cardboard, paper which is contaminated by
food, or soiled by any substance or material other than water or regulated
material.
Any enjoyment of the commercial user's real property or premises
by a customer or client of that commercial user or the occupant of
commercial property.
Any individual, firm, partnership, commission, company, corporation,
association, joint venture, cooperative enterprise, trust, estate,
governmental agency or other legal entity or any group of such persons
which is recognized by law as the subject of rights and duties. In
any provision of this chapter prescribing a fine, penalty or imprisonment,
the term person shall include but is not limited to the officers,
directors, partners, managers, trustees, agents or persons in charge
of a firm, partnership, commission, company, corporation, association,
joint venture, cooperative enterprise, trust, estate or governmental
agency or other legal entity having officers, directors, partners,
managers, trustees, agents or other persons in charge.
Any plant or animal detrimental to humans or to their interests.
This term includes but is not limited to rats and pigeons.
Any document seeking public redress, in the form prescribed
by the City Clerk, including any required number of dated signatures.
Oily, flammable liquid solution of hydrocarbons; petroleum-based
oils of any kind which have been refined, rerefined or otherwise processed
for the purpose of being burned as a fuel to produce heat or usable
energy; or which are suitable for use as a motor fuel or lubricant
in the operation or maintenance of an engine.
Containers composed of high-density polyethylene (HDPE),
low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) or other specific plastics as the Commissioner may designate.
This term does not include regulated material.
A building or group of buildings constituting a single property
and the lot or parcel of land on which such building or buildings
are located.
Any process by which waste is made ready for collection and
disposal.
Any collection or disposal of solid waste by the City of
Buffalo, including the collection and removal of scattered solid waste
pursuant to this chapter or the rules and regulations promulgated
by the Commissioner.
The panel established pursuant to this chapter to hear and
decide billing complaints.
[Amended 3-19-2002, effective 3-28-2002]
Any real property or premises open to the use of the general
public. This term includes but is not limited to public parks, open
spaces and other public places.
A person with a disability who, with or without reasonable
modifications to rules, policies or practices, the removal of architectural,
communication or transportation barriers or the provision of auxiliary
aids and services, meets the essential eligibility requirements for
the receipt of services or the participation in programs or activities
provided by a governmental agency.
All realty located within the city, whether occupied by owner
or rented, whether commercial or residential.
Any container or vessel for temporary disposal of waste,
such as a trash can, garbage can or dumpster.
The act of gaining, obtaining, regaining or retaking useful
material from waste.
Any of the following solid waste material: aluminum containers;
glass; metal cans; plastic containers; boxboard; cardboard; corrugated
cardboard; paper; vegetative yard waste; wood waste; and such other
solid waste material which can be collected, separated and/or treated,
reclaimed, used or reused to produce new raw material or product as
designated in the rules and regulations promulgated by the Commissioner.
This term does not include regulated waste.
Any method, technique or process by which materials, which
otherwise would become solid waste, are collected, separated and/or
processed, treated, modified, converted, reclaimed, used or reused
so that its components may be beneficially used or reused as raw materials
or products.
Any facility designed and operated solely for the receiving
and storing of recyclable material.
All rejected or discarded putrescible and nonputrescible
solid waste. This term includes garbage, rubbish and ashes. This term
does not include regulated material.
Any material which has been exposed to or is a chemical,
substance, waste or pollutant, as defined in or governed by any environmental
law or as determined by any governmental agency or the Commissioner,
including but not limited to high-level and low-level radioactive
waste, hazardous material, hazardous waste, infectious waste, raw
sewage, septage, sludge, regulated medical waste, industrial waste,
petroleum or waste oil.
Any waste which is generated in the diagnosis, research,
treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in the production
or testing of biologicals. This term includes but is not limited to
infectious waste, syringes, lancets and needles.
Any person licensed or permitted by the State of New York,
the federal government or any department or agency thereof to collect,
remove, transport or dispose of any regulated material.
A permit issued by the Common Council pursuant to § 216-32 of this chapter which allows or regulates the use of real property or premises which creates or has created offensive or noxious odors.
Solid waste which is generated by or originating in and around
residential user. This term does not include bulk solid waste or large
appliances in excess of the amounts specified in the chapter or in
the rules or regulations of the Commissioner or regulated material.
A person who owns or occupies an improved parcel of land
in the City of Buffalo which is designed for or occupied by a residential
use with three or fewer dwelling units. This term includes but is
not limited to vacant lots and two residential structures on one parcel.
Any recycling program concerning residential users.
Any area in which landfills are prohibited by provisions
of this chapter and any other environmental law. This term includes
but is not limited to areas within or directly adjacent to a residential
area, within or directly adjacent to any marsh or wetland area or
within the floodways as indicated on the current National Flood Program
Boundary and Rate Maps.
Nonputrescible solid wastes consisting of both combustible
and incombustible wastes. This term includes but is not limited to
dirt, fill, nonrecyclable paper, wrappings, cigarettes, wood, wires,
glass, bedding, furniture and similar material which are not recyclable
material. This term does not include regulated material.
The unlicensed, unauthorized or uncontrolled removal of waste
at any point in the waste stream.
To divide and set apart different types of solid waste.
The contents of a septic tank, cesspool or other individual
sewage treatment facility which receives domestic sewage wastes.
The process by which all complaints concerning billing rates
of public collection user fees are determined by the Commissioner
to be correct or incorrect.
[Amended 3-19-2002, effective 3-28-2002]
Accumulated semiliquid suspension of settled solids deposited
from wastewaters or other fluids in tanks or basins resulting from
process or treatment operations or residues from the storage or use
of liquids. This term does not include solid or dissolved material
in domestic sewage or other significant pollutants in water resources,
silt, dissolved material in irrigation return flows or other common
water pollutants.
All putrescible and nonputrescible material or substances
discarded or rejected as having served their original intended use
or as being spent, useless, worthless or in excess to the person at
the time of such discard or rejection. This term includes but is not
limited to garbage, ashes, refuse, rubbish, and recyclable material.
This term does not include solid or dissolved matter in domestic sewage
or substances, material in noncontainerized gaseous form or regulated
material.
The Advisory Committee established pursuant to this chapter
to advise the Commissioner on policies for the City regarding solid
waste collection and disposal and recycling.
Any act or process of gathering, assembling or otherwise
collecting solid waste.
Any person, other than the city, duly licensed to collect,
remove, transport or dispose of commercial solid waste or industrial
waste, with or without charge or payment.
Accounting fund separate and distinct from the city's general
fund created pursuant to this chapter to account for the revenues,
costs and expenses from the city's collection and disposal of solid
waste.
The purposeful, systematic control of the generation, separation,
storage, collection, processing and disposal of solid waste.[1]
To sort recyclable material from other solid waste at the
point of generation for sale or other disposition.
An event as defined in § 414-2 of this Code.
A space or place for the proper safekeeping of solid waste.
The rubber covering for a wheel.
Matter which acts or is likely to act as a poison.
The conveyance of solid waste.
Any method, technique or process, including neutralization,
designed to change the physical, chemical or biological character
or composition of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste
or as to render such waste nonhazardous, safer for transport, amenable
for recovery, amenable for storage or reduced in volume.
That enjoyment of property which consists in its employment,
occupation, exercise or practice.
The charges authorized in Article 15 of the Charter of the City of Buffalo and established in this chapter for the services of public collection of solid waste.
Any parcel of land which is not improved by a structure.
This term does not include active parking lots.
[Amended 5-13-1997, effective 5-27-1997]
Compost material, organic yard and garden waste, leaves,
grass clippings and brush. This term does not include regulated material.
Any garbage, sludge and other discarded material, whether
or not such material may eventually be used for some other purpose.
Used oil. This term includes but is not limited to petroleum,
engine lubricating oil, fuel oil, motor oil, gear oil, cutting oil,
transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid, dielectric fluid, oil storage
tank residue, animal oil and vegetable oil, which has been contaminated
by physical or chemical impurities, through use or accident, and has
not subsequently been refined.
The process of waste collection and disposal from generation
of waste through its collection and disposal.
Logs, pallets and other wood material. This term does not
include regulated material.
[1]
Editor's Note: The definition of "Solid Waste Review Panel,"
which immediately followed this definition, was amended 3-19-2002,
effective 3-28-2002. See now "Public Collection Board of Appeals."
