N.H. Rev. Stat. § 149-M:4

Current through the 2024 Legislative Session

Section 149-M:4 - [Effective 7/1/2025] Definitions

In this chapter:

I. "Abutter" means any person who owns property adjacent to, or across a road, railroad, utility corridor, or watercourse from the property on which a solid waste facility may be permitted.

I-a. "Advanced recycling" means a manufacturing process for the conversion of post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks into basic raw materials, feedstock chemicals, and other products like waxes and lubricants through processes that include pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization, catalytic cracking, reforming, hydrogenation, solvolysis, and other similar technologies. The recycled products produced at advanced recycling facilities include monomers, oligomers, plastics, plastics and chemical feedstocks, basic and unfinished chemicals, waxes, lubricants, and coatings. For the purposes of this chapter, the primary products of advanced recycling shall not include hydrocarbons which are marketed, sold, or used as fuel for energy. Incidental products may be used for fuel only within the facility. For the purposes of this chapter, "advanced recycling" shall not be considered solid waste management, solid waste processing, waste processing, treatment, incineration, or combustion.

I-b. "Advanced recycling facility" means a facility that receives, stores, and converts post-use polymers and recovered feedstock it receives using advanced recycling. An advanced recycling facility shall be considered a manufacturing facility. For the purpose of this chapter, "advanced recycling facility" shall not include a facility, solid waste facility, solid waste management facility, waste management facility, processing/treatment facility, solid waste collection, storage, and transfer facility, processing facility, treatment facility, or an incinerator.

II. "Approved facility" means a facility with a valid permit from the department.

II-a. "Certified waste-derived product" means a constituent of solid waste which is no longer regulated as a solid waste when certified by the department to be recyclable for its original use or alternate uses and which poses no greater risk to the environment, public health, and safety than exists by producing, distributing, using, or disposing comparable products which are not waste-derived. Products derived from advanced recycling shall not be considered waste-derived products or require certification as waste-derived products.

III. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the department of environmental services.

IV. "Compost" means a stable, humus-like substance which is derived from a process involving the biological decomposition of any readily biodegradable material, such as animal manure, garbage, yard waste, septage, sludge, or other organic solid wastes, and which can be beneficially re-used for land application.

IV-a. "Construction and demolition debris" means non-putrescible waste building materials and rubble which is solid waste resulting from the construction, remodeling, repair or demolition of structures or roads. The term includes, but is not limited to, bricks, concrete and other masonry materials, wood, wall coverings, plaster, dry wall, plumbing, fixtures, non-asbestos insulation or roofing shingles, asphaltic pavement, glass, plastics that are not sealed in a manner that conceals other wastes, and electrical wiring and components, incidental to any of the above and containing no hazardous liquid or metals. The term does not include asbestos waste, garbage, corrugated container board, electrical fixtures containing hazardous liquids such as fluorescent light ballasts or transformers, furniture, appliances, tires, drums and containers, and fuel tanks.

IV-b. "Computer" means a laptop computer, desktop computer, tablet computer, or central processing unit of a computer that conveys electronic, magnetic, optical or electrochemical data, or other high-speed data processing device performing logical, arithmetic, or storage functions. "Computer" does not include an automated typewriter, typesetter, or other similar device.

IV-c. "Computer monitor" means a display device without a tuner that can display pictures and sound and is used with a computer.

IV-d. "Computer peripheral" means a keyboard, mouse or any other device sold exclusively for external use with a computer that produces input or output into or from a computer.

V. "Department" means the department of environmental services.

V-a. "Depolymerization" means a manufacturing process where post-use polymers are broken into smaller molecules such as monomers, oligomers, plastic or chemical feedstocks, or other basic raw materials.

VI. "Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid waste into or onto any land or water with the possible result that such solid waste or any constituent of it may enter the environment, be emitted into the air, or be discharged into any waters, including groundwater.

VII. "District" means a solid waste management district established under RSA 149-M:24.

VIII. "District plan" means the plan developed for waste management within a district. and approved by the department.

VIII-a.

(a) "Electronic device" means computer, computer monitor, computer peripheral, printer, device containing a cathode ray tube, television, wireless telephones, copiers, fax machines, and video display device, video display media recorder/player, or any other electronic device specified by rule promulgated by the department.

(b) "Electronic device" does not include the following, unless removed from a larger piece of equipment or appliance of which it is a part for recycling:

(1) Any motor vehicle or any component part of a motor vehicle, including replacement parts thereof.

(2) A device, including a touch screen display, that is functionally or physically part of a larger piece of equipment designed and intended for use in:

(A) Industrial, governmental, commercial or research and development settings;

(B) Security, sensing, border control or counterterrorism equipment;

(C) Monitoring, diagnostic or control equipment; or

(D) Commercial medical equipment that contains a video display device that is not separate from the larger piece of equipment.

(3) A device that is contained within a:

(A) Clothes washer or dryer;

(B) Refrigerator, freezer or refrigerator and freezer;

(C) Microwave oven or conventional oven or range;

(D) Dishwasher;

(E) Room air conditioner, dehumidifier, or air purifier; or

(F) Exercise equipment.

VIII-b. "End-of-life motor vehicle" means a wrecked, worn-out, junk, or other motor vehicle as defined in RSA 259:60, I, that is no longer intended for use according to its original purpose and is destined for final disposal. The term does not include a motor vehicle that is being kept for repair or restoration, or that is temporarily impounded pending identification of last owner of record or settlement of an insurance claim.

IX. "Facility" means a location, system, or physical structure for the collection, separation, storage, transfer, processing, treatment, or disposal of solid waste.

IX-a. "Food waste" means the organic residues generated by the handling, preparation, storage, sale, and serving of foods and beverages. "Food waste" includes pre-consumer and post-consumer organic residues, food scraps, and non-petroleum oil used for food preparation provided it does not contain sanitary wastewater.

IX-b. "General permit" means a permit which contains terms and conditions applicable to a specific category of facility, which applies to any facility in that category which has submitted the required information and agreed to abide by the stated terms and conditions.

IX-c. "Gasification" means a manufacturing process through which recovered feedstocks are heated and converted into synthesis gas in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere and the mixture is converted into valuable raw materials.

X. "Hearing" means the opportunity for the submission of written or oral comments, or both.

X-a. "Incinerator" means a facility which employs a method of using controlled thermal combustion, including flame combustion, to thermally break down waste or other materials, including refuse-derived fuel, to an ash residue that contains little or no combustible materials.

XI. "Manure" means animal feces and urine with natural organic bedding materials such as hay, sawdust, straw, or wood chips, but exclusive of human waste.

XI-a. "Motor vehicle crusher" means a mechanical device used to intentionally flatten and reduce the volume of end-of-life motor vehicles to facilitate the transportation of such vehicles to a scrap processing facility. The term includes both mobile and stationary devices. The term also includes loggers and balers.

XI-b. "Motor vehicle salvage facility" means a place where end-of-life motor vehicles are received, kept and drained, dismantled, or otherwise processed for final disposal at a scrap metal processing facility. The term shall not include any facility that does not require a license under RSA 236:111 through RSA 236:129.

XII. "Order" means an official written notice requiring compliance with a statute, rule, or permit.

XIII. "Out-of-state solid waste" means solid waste generated or originating outside the borders of the state, but not including solid waste generated or originating from communities participating in cooperative agreements authorized by RSA 53-D.

XIV. "Permit" means an authorization from the department for the construction and operation of a facility.

XV. "Person" means any individual; business entity, including a trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation); partnership; association; government agency; or political subdivision of the state.

XV-a. "Post-use polymer" means a plastic to which all of the following apply:

(a) The plastic is derived from industrial, commercial, agricultural, or domestic activities.

(b) The plastic is not mixed with solid waste or hazardous waste.

(c) The plastic's use or intended use is as a feedstock for mechanical or chemical recycling.

(d) The plastic has been sorted from solid waste and other regulated waste but may contain residual amounts of solid waste such as organic material and incidental contaminants or impurities such as paper labels and metal rings.

XVI. "Private facility" means one whose permit is held by a person other than a government unit or agency or political subdivision of the state.

XVII. "Public benefit" means the protection of the health, economy, and natural environment of the state of New Hampshire consistent with RSA 149-M:11.

XVIII. "Public facility" means one whose permit is held by a town or other governmental unit or agency or political subdivision of the state, or a combination thereof.

XVIII-a. "Pyrolysis" means a manufacturing process through which post-use polymers are heated in the absence of oxygen, sometimes in the presence of catalysts, until thermally decomposed and are then cooled and condensed. The resulting chemicals, when separated from wastes, can provide raw materials for the production of plastics, lubricants, waxes, and other industrially useful chemicals.

XVIII-b. "Recovered feedstock" means one or more of the following materials that has been processed so it may be used as feedstock in an advanced recycling facility:

(a) Post-use polymers.

(b) Materials for which the United States Environmental Protection Agency has made a non waste determination pursuant to 40 C.F.R. 241.3(c), or has otherwise determined are feedstocks and not solid waste.

(c) Recovered feedstock does not include unprocessed municipal solid waste.

(d) Recovered feedstock is not mixed with solid waste or hazardous waste onsite or during processing at an advanced recycling facility.

XIX. "Recyclable materials" means materials that can be used to produce marketable goods, including but not limited to separated clear and colored glass, aluminum, ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastics, corrugated cardboard, motor vehicle batteries, tires from motor vehicles, and paper.

XX. "Recycling" means the collection, storage, processing, and redistribution of recyclable materials.

XXI. "Refuse" means and includes any waste product, solid or having the character of a solid rather than a liquid in that it will not flow readily without additional liquid, and which is composed wholly or partly of such materials as garbage, swill, sweepings, cleanings, trash, rubbish, litter, industrial or domestic solid wastes; organic wastes or residue of animals sold as meat; fruit, vegetable or animal matter from kitchens, dining rooms, markets, food establishments or any places dealing in or handling meat, fowl, fruits, grain or vegetables; offal, animal excreta, or the carcasses of animals; construction and demolition debris; or accumulated waste material, cans, containers, tires, junk, or other such substances which may become a nuisance.

XXII. "Solid waste" means any matter consisting of putrescible material, refuse, residue from an air pollution control facility, and other discarded or abandoned material. It includes solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities. For purposes of this chapter, it does not include hazardous waste as defined in RSA 147-A:2; solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows; cut or uprooted tree stumps buried on-site with local approval if required, provided that such burial locations are not located within 75 feet of any drinking water supply; municipal and industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under section 402 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended; source, special nuclear or by-product material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended; septage or sludge as defined in RSA 485-A:2, IX-a and XI-a; or post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks converted at an advanced recycling facility or held at such facility prior to conversion.

XXII-a. "Solvolysis" means a manufacturing process through which post-use polymers are purified with the aid of solvents, while heated at low temperatures and/or pressurized to make useful products, allowing additives and contaminants to be removed. The products of solvolysis include monomers, intermediates, and valuable chemicals and raw materials. The process includes but is not limited to hydrolysis, amylolysis, ammonolysis, methanolysis, and glycolysis.

XXIII. "Solid waste management" means the systematic administration of activities for the collection, separation, processing, treatment, transportation, transfer, storage, recovery, and disposal of solid waste.

XXIV. "Source reduction" means the practice of reducing the quantity or toxicity of waste generated at the source, before recycling, processing, disposal or treatment, by changing the processes that first generated the waste. Source reduction includes waste reduction.

XXV. "Special waste" means any matter consisting of medical or infectious wastes.

XXVI. "State plan" means the state solid waste management plan developed under RSA 149-M:29.

XXVII. "Town" means town, city, unincorporated town, and unorganized place.

XXVII-a. "Transfer station" means a solid waste collection, storage, and transfer facility, which collects, stores, and transfers solid waste, including non-recyclable waste.

XXVIII. "Video display device" means a visual display component of a television or a computer, whether separate or integrated with a computer central processing unit/box, and includes a cathode ray tube, liquid crystal display, gas plasma, digital light processing, or other image projection technology, greater than 4 inches when measured diagonally, and its case, interior wires, and circuitry.

XXIX. "Video display media recorder/player" means an electronic component capable of playing and/or recording analog or digital video signal on or from various types of media, including magnetic tape, optically scanned disks, integral hard drives or other types of memory devices. This includes electronic components such as a videocassette recorder (VCR), a digital video disk (VDR) or a component with a digital hard drive.

RSA 149-M:4

Amended by 2024, 369:5, eff. 7/1/2025.

Amended by 2024, 369:4, eff. 7/1/2025.

Amended by 2024, 369:2, eff. 7/1/2025.

Amended by 2024, 199:2, eff. 9/10/2024.

Amended by 2024, 199:1, eff. 9/10/2024.

Amended by 2023, 79: 355, eff. 1/1/2024.

Amended by 2023, 79: 354, eff. 1/1/2024.

Amended by 2022, 224: 9, eff. 8/16/2022.

Amended by 2022, 224: 8, eff. 8/16/2022.

Amended by 2022, 224: 7, eff. 8/16/2022.

Amended by 2022, 224: 6, eff. 8/16/2022.

Amended by 2022, 224: 5, eff. 8/16/2022.

Amended by 2022, 224: 4, eff. 8/16/2022.

Amended by 2022, 224: 3, eff. 8/16/2022.

Amended by 2022, 224: 2, eff. 8/16/2022.

1996, 251:2; 251:28. 1998, 112:1, 2, eff. Aug. 1, 1998. 2006, 171:1, eff. July 1, 2006. 2007, 127:1-3, eff. June 12, 2007; 128:4, eff. Jan. 1, 2008. 2008, 191:1-3, eff. Aug. 10, 2008. 2009, 126:1, 2, eff. June 22, 2009; 314:1, eff. Oct. 6, 2009.

This section is set out more than once due to postponed, multiple, or conflicting amendments.