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.