Title 23
Health and Safety

Chapter 19
Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation

§ 23-19-5. Definitions.

The following words and phrases have the meanings ascribed to them in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) “Bonds and notes” means bonds, including without limitation refunding bonds, notes, including without limitation renewal notes and bond anticipation notes, and other obligations or evidences of indebtedness of the corporation issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and the resolutions of the corporation.

(2) “Central landfill” means the central landfill located in Johnston.

(3) “Corporation” means the Rhode Island resource recovery corporation created and established pursuant to this chapter.

(4) “Landfill revenues” means the surplus, if any, of all tipping fees and other revenues received at the central landfill over the annual costs of the landfill, and a pro-rata share of the corporation’s administrative expenses.

(5) “Municipal solid waste” means that solid waste generated by the residents of a municipality in the course of their daily living, the disposal of which the governing body of that municipality has undertaken in the discharge of its duties to protect the health of the municipality. Municipal solid waste does not include solid waste generated by residents of a municipality in the course of their employment or that generated by any manufacturing or commercial enterprise.

(6) “Municipal solid waste disposal arrangements” means those arrangements entered into by a municipality which provide for the final disposal of wastes in a manner approved by the department of health, the department of environmental management, and the corporation; provided, however, that the disposal of wastes in transfer stations or facilities for interim storage shall not constitute final disposal of the wastes.

(7) “Municipality” means any town or city within the state.

(8) “Person” means any individual, firm, institution, partnership, association or corporation, public, or private, organized or existing under the laws of the state or other states including federal corporations, but excluding municipalities.

(9) “Project” means the design, acquisition, ownership, operation, construction, rehabilitation, improvement, development, sale, lease, or other disposition of, or the provision of financing for, any solid waste management facility or the industrial and/or business parks in the town of Johnston authorized by § 23-19-9(a)(7) and the highway access authorized by § 23-19-10.3.

(10) “Recyclable materials” means those materials separated from solid waste for reuse. The director of the department of environmental management through regulations shall specify those materials that are to be included within the definition of recyclables. The materials to be included may change from time to time depending upon new technologies, economic conditions, characteristics of the waste stream, environmental effects, or other factors.

(11) “Recycling” means the reuse of recovered resources in manufacturing, agriculture, power production, or other processes.

(12) “Resource recovery” means the processing of solid wastes in such a way as to produce materials or energy that may be used in manufacturing, agriculture, and other processes.

(13) “Resource recovery system” means the corporation’s integrated system of resource recovery consisting of a series of waste processing facilities designed to process a minimum of seventy percent (70%) of the municipal and commercial solid waste streams by employing an on-site waste separation technology for the purpose of recycling and/or reusing a minimum of seventy percent (70%) of the solid waste stream, and minimal use of landfills for the purpose of providing temporary backup or bypass landfill capacity and residue disposal from waste processing facilities and any other related facilities and services.

(14) “Resource recovery system costs” means all operating costs of the system; debt service and other financing costs related to the resource recovery system; the costs of recycling grants-in-aid and similar obligations of the corporation; allocations for extraordinary and unexpected costs; and a pro-rata share of the corporation’s administrative expenses.

(15) “Resource recovery system revenues” means all amounts received by the corporation as municipal tipping fees, non-municipal tipping fees, energy revenues, revenues from the sale of recyclable materials, and all other revenues received with respect to the resource recovery system, but shall not include any landfill revenues and any amounts received as a state subsidy.

(16) “Revenues” means monies or income received by the corporation in whatever form, including but not limited to fees, charges, lease payments, interest payments on investments, payments due and owing on account of an instrument, contract, or agreement between the corporation, any municipality, or person, gifts, grants, or any other monies or payments to which the corporation is entitled under the provisions of this chapter or any other law, or of any agreement, contract, or indenture.

(17) “Segregated solid waste” means material which has been separated from the waste stream at the generation source for the purpose of recovering and recycling the materials.

(18) “Solid waste” means garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material generated by residential, institutional, commercial, industrial, and agricultural sources but does not include solids or dissolved materials in domestic sewage.

(19) “Solid waste management facility” means any plant, structure, equipment, and other property, real, personal, or mixed, or the modification or replacement of any of the foregoing, for the receipt, storage, treatment, utilization, processing, transporting, or final disposition of or recovery of resources from solid waste other than segregated solid waste, or any facility which disposes of solid waste by reconstituting, converting, or otherwise recycling it into material which is not waste; or any property or system to be used in whole or in part for any of the previously mentioned purposes, whether or not another purpose is also served by it; or any other property or system incidental to, or which has to do with, or the end purpose of which, is any of the foregoing; or any combination of two (2) or more of the foregoing.

(20) “Statewide resource recovery system development plan” means that plan which will specify the location, size, and type of solid waste management facilities that may be required to develop an integrated statewide resource recovery system for the effective management of solid waste in Rhode Island. It will also specify a proposed schedule by which the component facilities will be phased into the statewide system, and it will provide for the administrative and financial requirements for implementing the plan.

(21) “Waste management” means actions taken to effectuate the receipt, storage, transportation, and processing for resource recovery and recycling, or for the ultimate disposal, of solid waste.

(22) “Waste processing facility” means a solid waste facility employing recycling based technology employing an on-site waste separation technology designed to process both nonsource separated and source separated solid waste for the purpose of recycling, and/or composting, and/or reusing a minimum of seventy percent (70%) of the municipal and commercial solid waste streams.