N.Y. County Law § 226-b: Solid waste management; resource recovery

§ 226-b. Solid waste management; resource recovery. 1. The legislative

body of any county may appropriate and expend such sums as it may deem

proper to provide for the separation, collection and management of solid

waste in such county and for that purpose may acquire, construct,

operate and maintain solid waste management facilities, acquire the

necessary lands therefor, and purchase, operate and maintain all

necessary appliances appurtenant thereto, including collection

facilities and such vehicles as may be required for such purposes. In

selecting a location for any solid waste management facility, the county

legislative body shall take into consideration the present and any

proposed land use character of the area of any proposed location and the

zoning regulations, if any, applicable to such area.

2. The legislative body of any county may, by resolution, establish

schedules of rates or fees to be charged for any solid waste collection

or management facilities or services provided pursuant to subdivision

one of this section, which rates or fees may be collected and unpaid

rates and fees enforced and collected in the same manner as provided in

section two hundred sixty-six of this chapter.

3. The term "solid waste" shall mean all materials or substances

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, sludges

from air or water pollution control facilities or water supply treatment

facilities, rubbish, ashes, contained gaseous material, incinerator

residue, demolition and construction debris and offal but not including

sewage and other highly diluted water carried materials or substances

and those in gaseous form, and "solid waste management facility" shall

mean any facility employed beyond the initial solid waste collection

process including, but not limited to, recycling centers, transfer

stations, baling facilities, rail haul or barge haul facilities,

processing systems, including resource recovery facilities or other

facilities for reducing solid waste volume, sanitary landfills, plants

and facilities for compacting, composting or pyrolization of solid

wastes, incinerators and other solid waste disposal, reduction or

conversion facilities.

4. A county acting within its boundaries pursuant to this section

shall be deemed to be acting in its governmental capacity. Nothing

herein contained shall prevent a county from entering into a municipal

cooperation agreement pursuant to article five-G of the general

municipal law.

5. The county of Westchester having been designated as a planning unit

pursuant to section 27-0107 of the environmental conservation law, shall

have power to adopt and amend local laws, ordinances and regulations

that license and/or regulate collecting, receiving, transporting,

delivering, storing, processing and disposing of solid waste and

recyclable or reusable material that are originated or brought within

the county, to the extent that such licensing and/or regulation is

necessary to carry out or to further the goals of the county's solid

waste management plan and that said plan has been approved by the

department of environmental conservation. The county of Westchester may

also adopt a local law or ordinance pursuant to section one hundred

twenty-aa of the general municipal law, governing the source-separation

and segregation of recyclable or reusable materials from solid waste.

Any law, ordinance, or regulation adopted by the county of Westchester

pursuant to this subdivision shall take precedence over and shall

supersede any inconsistent provisions of any such local law, ordinance

or regulation enacted by any other municipality within the boundaries of

the county of Westchester commencing September first, nineteen hundred

ninety-two, except that no county source separation law may authorize

enforcement proceedings and penalties against a municipality for that

municipality's failure to meet specific recycling goals set by the

county in accordance with the county's state-approved solid waste

management plan until September first, nineteen hundred ninety-four,

provided, that the municipality has adopted a local recycling plan

reasonably designed to meet said recycling goals and has demonstrated

good faith in implementing its recycling program. For purposes of this

subdivision the term "solid waste" shall have the same meaning as

provided in subdivision three of this section and shall include

materials separated from the waste stream pursuant to section one

hundred twenty-aa of the general municipal law. Such term, however,

shall not include any scrap or other material of value separated from

the waste stream and held for purposes of materials recycling.