WAC 480-70-041   Definitions, general.  (See WAC 480-70-226 (Tariffs, definitions used in) for definition of terms used primarily in tariff filings.) Unless the language or context indicates that a different meaning is intended, the following words, terms and phrases mean:

     "Affiliated interest" means a person or corporation as defined in RCW 81.16.010.

     "Application docket" means a commission publication listing applications requesting operating authority, and commission action taken on applications for temporary authority.

     "Biomedical waste" means the following types of waste:

     "Animal waste" means waste animal carcasses, body parts, and bedding of animals that are known to be infected with, or that have been inoculated with, human pathogenic microorganisms infectious to humans.

     "Biosafety level 4 disease waste" means waste contaminated with blood, excretions, exudates, or secretions from humans or animals who are isolated to protect others from highly communicable infectious diseases that are identified as pathogenic organisms assigned to biosafety level 4 by the Centers for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories, current edition.

     "Cultures and stocks" means wastes infectious to humans and includes specimen cultures, cultures and stocks of etiologic agents, wastes from production of biologicals and serums, discarded live and attenuated vaccines, and laboratory waste that has come into contact with cultures and stocks of etiologic agents or blood specimens. Such waste includes, but is not limited to, culture dishes, blood specimen tubes, and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix cultures.

     "Human blood and blood products" means discarded waste human blood and blood components, and materials containing free-flowing blood and blood products.

     "Pathological waste" means waste human source biopsy materials, tissues, and anatomical parts that emanate from surgery, obstetrical procedures, and autopsy. "Pathological waste" does not include teeth, human corpses, remains, and anatomical parts that are intended for interment or cremation.

     "Sharps waste" means all hypodermic needles, syringes with needles attached, IV tubing with needles attached, scalpel blades, and lancets that have been removed from the original sterile package.


    

Note:

Certificates issued prior to the effective date of these rules may contain the terms "biohazardous waste" or "infectious waste" in describing services authorized. From the effective date of these rules, those permits shall be understood to allow the transportation of "biomedical waste."

     "Biohazardous or biomedical waste generator" means any person, by site, whose act or process produces infectious waste, or whose act first caused an infectious waste to become subject to regulation. In the case where more than one person, e.g., doctors with separate medical practices, are located in the same building, each individual business entity is a separate generator for the purposes of these rules.

     "Biohazardous or biomedical waste transporter" means any person who transports infectious waste over the highways in a quantity equal to or exceeding one hundred pounds per month for compensation.

     "Biosolids" means municipal sewage sludge that is a primarily organic, semisolid product resulting from the wastewater treatment process.

     "Business of transporting solid waste for collection and/or disposal for compensation" means those carriers who are primarily in the specialized business of solid waste for collection and/or disposal.

     "Cancellation" means an act by the commission to terminate a solid waste collection company certificate; or an act by a carrier to discontinue the application of a tariff, a tariff supplement, or a tariff item.

     "Certificate" means the certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the Washington utilities and transportation commission under the provisions of chapter 81.77 RCW for the operation of solid waste collection companies.

     "Certificated authority" means the territory and services granted by the commission and described in a company's certificate of public convenience and necessity.

     "City regulation" means regulation of the operations of a solid waste collection company by a city through issuance of a contract.

     "Classes of companies":

     "Class A company" means a traditional solid waste collection company with an annual gross operating revenue from regulated, intrastate operations of five million dollars or more.

     "Class B company" means a traditional solid waste collection company with an annual gross operating revenue from regulated, intrastate operations of less than five million dollars.

     "Class C company" means a solid waste collection company that does not provide traditional residential or commercial solid waste operations. This class includes specialized carriers generally hauling specific waste products for specific customers or providing only on-call or nonscheduled service.

     "Classes of service" means either commercial, specialized, drop box, or residential service.

     "Company" means a solid waste collection company.

     "Commercial authority" means authority to provide solid waste collection service to business, institutional, or industrial generators.

     "Commercial recycling service" means transportation of recyclable commodities from a buy-back center, drop box, or from a commercial or industrial generator of recyclable materials when those recyclable materials are being transported for use other than landfill disposal or incineration. Commercial recycling is regulated under chapter 81.80 RCW.

     "Commercial service" means solid waste collection service provided to a business, institutional, or industrial generator.

     "Commission" means the Washington utilities and transportation commission.

     "Common carrier" means any person who transports solid waste by motor vehicle for compensation.

     "Construction debris" or "construction waste" means solid waste resulting from the building or renovation of buildings, roads and other man-made structures. Construction debris includes, but is not limited to, materials such as plasterboard, cement, dirt, wood, and brush.

     "Contract carrier" means a person holding a certificate issued by the commission authorizing transportation of solid waste for collection and/or disposal under special and individual contracts or agreements.

     "Control" means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a company, whether through the ownership of voting shares, by contract, or otherwise.

     "Demolition waste" or "demolition debris" means solid waste resulting from the demolition or razing of buildings, roads and other man-made structures. Demolition waste includes, but is not limited to, concrete, brick, bituminous concrete, wood and masonry, composition roofing and roofing paper, steel, and minor amounts of other metals like copper.

     "Disinfect" means to cleanse by destroying harmful microorganisms.

     "Disposal site" means the location where any final treatment, utilization, processing, or deposit of solid waste occurs. This term includes, but is not limited to, landfills, transfer stations, and incinerators.

     "Dump truck operator" means a carrier holding a permit under chapter 81.80 RCW engaged in the operation of dump trucks and similar vehicles used in the transportation of sand, gravel, dirt, debris, and other similar commodities except solid waste. Dump truck operations are usually conducted during the daytime; are local in character; are somewhat seasonal, especially in connection with building or construction projects; and the value of the commodity transported is usually low.

     "Filing" means any application, petition, tariff proposal, annual report, comment, complaint, pleading, or other document submitted to the commission.

     "Garbage" means those materials of solid waste that are putrescible.

     "Garbage and refuse." Whenever the phrase "garbage and refuse" is used as a qualifying phrase, it means either garbage or refuse, or both garbage and refuse.

     "Hazardous waste" means any material that is subject to the Hazardous Waste Manifest Requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency specified in 40 CFR Part 262.

     "Incineration" means to reduce the volume of solid waste by use of an enclosed device using controlled flame combustion.

     "Incinerator" means a site where solid waste is reduced in volume by use of an enclosed device using controlled flame combustion.

     "Landfill" means a disposal facility or part of a facility at which solid waste is placed in or on land and which is not a land-treatment facility.

     "Land-treatment facility" means the site on which the practice of applying dangerous waste onto or incorporating dangerous waste into the soil surface so that it will degrade or decompose takes place. The term does not include applying waste onto or into the soil surface for the purpose of soil sweetening or soil amendment.

     "Leachate" means water or other liquid that has been contaminated by dissolved or suspended materials due to contact with solid waste or gases.

     "Motor vehicle" means any truck, trailer, semi-trailer, tractor or any self-propelled or motor-driven vehicle used on any public highway of this state for the purpose of transporting solid waste for collection and/or disposal.

     "Multiple-family residence" or "multifamily residence"means any structure housing two or more dwelling units.

     "Multifamily service" means residential service provided to multifamily structures or locations including, but not limited to, duplexes, apartments, mobile home courts, and condominiums.

     "Nonputrescible" means not capable of being readily decomposed by microorganisms.

     "Occasional" means occurring at irregular and infrequent intervals. The term is qualitative, not quantitative, in that the term applies to services that are only performed from time-to-time, not that the solid waste hauling is only a small part of services offered.

     "Packer" means a device or vehicle specially designed to compress loose materials.

     "Person" means an individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, lessee, receiver, trustee, consortium, joint venture, or commercial entity.

     "Private carrier" means a person who transports solid waste in the person's own vehicle purely as an incidental adjunct to some other established private business owned or operated by that person in good faith.

EXCEPTION:

A person who transports solid waste from residential sources in a vehicle designed or used primarily for the transport of solid waste is not a private carrier.

     "Private motor vehicle" means a vehicle owned or operated by a private carrier.

     "Private road" means a road not normally available for use by the public.

     "Public highway" means every street, road, or highway in this state normally available for use by the public.

     "Putrescible" means capable of being readily decomposed by microorganisms.

     "Recyclable materials" means materials that are transported for recycling, reprocessing, reclamation, or for any process that extracts or modifies the commodity for reuse or another commercially valuable purpose.

     "Recycling" means transforming or remanufacturing materials into usable or marketable materials for use other than landfill disposal or incineration.

     "Refuse" means those materials of solid waste that are not putrescible.

     "Residence" means the regular dwelling place of an individual or individuals.

     "Residential authority" means authority to provide solid waste collection from residences.

     "Residential recycling service" means collection of those solid wastes that are separated for recycling or reuse, such as paper, plastic, metals, and glass, that are identified as recyclable materials pursuant to a local comprehensive solid waste plan.

     "Residential service" means solid waste collection from residences.

     "Sewer sludge" means a semisolid substance consisting of settled sewage solids combined with varying amounts of water and dissolved materials, generated from a wastewater treatment system, that does not meet the requirements of chapter 70.95J RCW, and is transported to a site for disposal.

     "Shipping paper" means a shipping order, bill of lading, manifest, or other shipping document serving a similar purpose and containing the information required in WAC 480-70-401 (Payment options).

     "Small business" means any company that has fifty or fewer employees.

     "Solid waste" or "solid wastes" means all putrescible and nonputrescible solid and semisolid wastes including, but not limited to:

     • Garbage;

     • Rubbish;

     • Refuse;

     • Swill;

     • Ashes;

     • Industrial wastes;

     • Sewage sludge;

     • Demolition and construction wastes;

     • Abandoned vehicles or parts of abandoned vehicles; and

     • Source-separated recyclable materials collected from single and multifamily residences.

     "Solid waste collection" means collecting solid waste from residential or commercial customers and transporting the solid waste, using a motor vehicle, for collection and/or disposal over the highways of the state of Washington for compensation.

     "Solid waste collection company" means every common carrier, including a contract carrier, who provides solid waste collection service.

     "Source separation" means the separation of different kinds of solid waste at the place where the waste originates.

     "Specialized solid waste collection company" means a company providing other than traditional solid waste collection service. Specialized companies generally haul specific waste products for specific customers, provide only on-call or nonscheduled service, or provide accessorial services not normally provided by traditional solid waste collection companies.

     "State" means the state of Washington.

     "Subsidiary" means any company in which the solid waste company owns directly or indirectly five percent or more of the voting securities, unless the solid waste company demonstrates it does not have control.

     "Suspension" means an act by the commission to temporarily withhold a solid waste collection company's certificated authority; or an act by the commission to withhold approval of a company's tariff filing.

     "Tariff" means a document issued by a company, and approved by the commission, containing the services provided, the rates and charges the company bills its customers for those services, and the rules describing how the rates and charges apply.

     "Tariff service territory" means a company-defined geographic division of its certificated authority in which a specific tariff applies.

     "Third-party waste broker" means a person or company acting on behalf of a generator of solid waste, usually an industrial or commercial generator, to arrange for collection and/or disposal of solid waste.

     "Traditional solid waste collection company" means a company engaged in collecting and removing solid waste and recyclable materials from private homes, and/or removing solid waste from commercial establishments, industrial facilities, and other sites. Solid waste is normally picked up on a daily, weekly, or other regular basis. Drivers are usually assigned designated routes to collect curbside residential solid waste or transport cans or containers for commercial businesses. Unless the company's certificate is restricted against doing so, a traditional solid waste collection company may also perform specialized solid waste collection service.

     "Transfer station" means a staffed, fixed supplemental facility used by persons and route collection vehicles to deposit solid wastes into transfer trailers for transportation to a disposal site. The definition does not usually include detachable containers. However, in counties with a population of less than seventy thousand, and in any county with a population of from one hundred twenty-five thousand to less than two hundred ten thousand that is located east of the crest of the Cascade mountain range, if detachable containers are securely fenced, staffed by an attendant during all hours when the detachable container is open to the public, and tipping fees that cover the cost of providing the containers and the use of the facility are charged, then such detachable containers constitute a transfer station. (Refer to RCW 36.58.030.)

     "Treatment" means incineration, sterilization, or other method, technique, or process that changes the character or composition of a biomedical waste so as to minimize the risk of transmitting an infectious disease by making it noninfectious. Any waste, except sharps, that has been treated is not considered biohazardous or biomedical waste, and may be considered to be solid waste for purposes and handling.

     "Vehicle" means every device capable of transporting solid waste on a public highway. The term "vehicle" does not include devices moved by human or animal power or used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks.

     "Yard waste" or "yard debris" means plant material commonly created in the course of maintaining yards and gardens and through horticulture, gardening, landscaping, or similar activities. Yard waste includes, but is not limited to, grass clippings, leaves, branches, brush, weeds, flowers, roots, windfall fruit, and vegetable garden debris.



[Statutory Authority: RCW 80.01.040, 80.04.160, 81.04.160 and 34.05.353. 05-06-051 (Docket No. A-021178 and TO-030288, General Order No. R-518), § 480-70-041, filed 2/28/05, effective 3/31/05. Statutory Authority: RCW 81.04.160, 81.77.030 and 80.01.040. 01-08-012 (Docket No. TG-990161, General Order No. R-479), § 480-70-041, filed 3/23/01, effective 4/23/01.]