§10-724. Commercial Sector Waste Management and Recycling. [142]


(1) Definitions. In this Section, the following definitions apply:

(a) Municipal Waste. Any garbage, refuse, industrial lunchroom or office waste and other material, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material, resulting from operation of residential, municipal, commercial or institutional establishments and from community activities and any sludge not meeting the definition of residual or hazardous waste in the Pennsylvania Solid Waste Management Act from a municipal, commercial or institutional water supply treatment plant, wastewater treatment plant or air pollution control facility. The term does not include source separated recyclable materials.

(b) Compostible Material. Any Municipal and/or Residual Waste, organic in nature, that can be composed without interfering with the composting process and that will not prevent the use of the finished compost as a soil additive. Compostible Material includes Garbage and Yard Waste and can include paper.

(c) Operator. A person, including any individual, partnership, corporation, association, institution, cooperative enterprise, or governmental agency, who or which arranges for the collection and/or disposal of Municipal Waste, Residual Waste or Postconsumer Material generated at any Regulated Premises.

(d) Postconsumer Material. Any product generated by a business or consumer which has served its intended end use and which has been separated or diverted from solid waste for the purposes of collection, recycling and disposition. The term includes industrial by-products that would otherwise go to disposal or processing facilities. The term does not include internally generated scrap that is commonly returned to industrial or manufacturing processes.

(e) Recycling. The collection, separation, recovery and sale or reuse of metals, glass, paper, leaf waste, plastics and other materials which would otherwise be disposed or processed as municipal waste or the mechanized separation and treatment of municipal waste (other than through combustion) and creation and recovery of reusable materials other than a fuel for the operation of energy.

(f) Regulated Premises. Each premises located in the City of Philadelphia which generates Municipal Waste, Residual Waste, Postconsumer Material, Compostible Material or Construction/Demolition Material that does not receive collection services by the Department of Streets of the City of Philadelphia or receives privately contracted waste disposal service for at least a part of its municipal solid waste stream; provided that, in any multi-tenant or condominium building or complex of buildings in which the building manager, owner, condominium association or other management entity arranges for collective removal of such Municipal Waste, Residual Waste and/or Postconsumer Material, the building or complex of buildings as a whole, and not individual units thereof, shall be considered a single Regulated Premises.

(g) Residual Waste. Any garbage, refuse, other discarded material or other waste, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, mining and agricultural operations and any sludge from an industrial, mining or agricultural water supply treatment facility, waste water treatment facility or air pollution control facility, provided that it is not hazardous.

(h) Source-separated Recyclable Materials. Materials that are separated from municipal waste at the point of origin for the purpose of recycling.

(2) Regulated Premises Planning and Reporting Requirements. The Operator of each Regulated Premises shall prepare a Recycling Plan with respect to such Regulated premises briefly enumerating the means which will be used to meet the recycling objectives established at Section 10-717. Such Recycling Plan shall contain the following information:

(.1) The amounts of Municipal and/or Residual Waste generated at such Regulated Premises, estimated in tons per year.

(.2) Certification of compliance with all applicable regulations adopted pursuant to Section 10-717.

(.3) Description of which Postconsumer Materials will be targeted for separation from the Municipal and/or Residual Waste generated at such Regulated Premises.

(.4) Description of how Postconsumer Materials will be separated from Municipal and/or Residual Waste.

(.5) Indication of whether the separated recyclables are to be collected as Source-separated Recyclable Material; or whether an exemption will be sought from source-separation requirements.

(.6) Designation of each garbage collector, private waste hauler, recyclable material collector and postconsumer material broker with which the Operator arranges for removal of garbage, waste, or recyclable material from such Regulated Premises.

(.7) Indication of whether such Operator agrees to a release permitting the City to use recycling credits attributable to such Regulated Premises in the City's application to the Commonwealth for Performance Grants.

(3) The Recycling Plan referred to above shall be sent to the City of Philadelphia Recycling Office, maintained on file at the Regulated Premises and shall be initially distributed, and distributed at the time of any amendment, by the Operator to residents of and persons employed at the Regulated Premises.

(4) The Recycling Plan shall be amended by the Operator of such Regulated Premises within thirty (30) days of any change in practices described therein, and the amended plan shall be sent to the City of Philadelphia Recycling Office and shall be posted in a public area and available for inspection at the premises and distributed to residents and/or employees.

(5) The provisions of this Section may be enforced through the use of notices of violation in accordance with the procedures provided in Section 10-718.

(6) Penalties.

(a) The penalty for violation of any provision of this Section or of any regulation promulgated thereunder shall be provided in accordance with Section 10-719, or such equitable remedy as the Court may deem proper.