Tracy Municipal Code Art. 2 Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this chapter are defined as set forth below. It is intended that these definitions be consistent with provisions of State law set forth in the California Public Resources Code.

"Act" means the California Integrated Waste Management Act (AB 939) of 1989. Among other requirements, the Act mandates that by the year 2000, local jurisdictions divert fifty (50) percent of the historic disposal stream from disposal in landfills.

"Applicable law" means all laws, statutes, rules, regulations, guidelines, permits, actions, determinations, orders, approvals, or requirements of the United States, State of California, County, regional, or local government authorities, agencies, boards, commissions, courts, or other bodies having applicable jurisdiction, that from time to time, apply to or govern the management of refuse or any other materials or processes described in this chapter.

"Back-haul" means generating and transporting refuse, recyclable materials, or organic materials to a destination owned and operated by the generator using the generator's own employees and equipment, or as otherwise defined in Title 14 California Code of Regulation § 18982 (66 A).

"Bulky waste" means large items of refuse such as appliances, furniture, large auto parts, trees, branches, stumps, and other oversize waste whose large size precludes or complicates their handling by normal collection, processing, or disposal methods. (Title 27 California Code of Regulations, § 20164)

"Buy-back recycling center" means a facility which may pay a redemption fee for the delivery and transfer of ownership to the facility or individual of source separated materials, for the purpose of recycling.

"City" means the City of Tracy, including any unincorporated areas of the County that may be annexed by the City.

"Commercial business" or "commercial" means a firm, partnership, proprietorship, joint-stock company, corporation, or association, whether for-profit or nonprofit, strip mall, or industrial facility. A multi-family residential dwelling that consists of five (5) units or more is considered a commercial business for purposes of this Chapter.

"Commercial edible food generator" includes a Tier One or a Tier Two commercial edible food generator as defined in Title 14 California Code of Regulations § 18982 (73) and (74). For the purposes of this Chapter, food recovery organizations and food recovery services are not commercial edible food generators.

"Commercial waste" means refuse originating from commercial businesses including stores, markets, office buildings, restaurants, theaters, shopping centers, hospitals, schools, and commercial warehouses.

"Community composting operation" means any activity that composts organic materials, and the total amount of feedstock and compost on-site at any one time does not exceed 100 cubic yards and 750 square feet. A community composting operation does not include a composting operation that is located on private property and only processes material generated at the premises including, but not limited to, residential backyard composting or on-site composting at a farm that does not process external material.

"Compactor" means a compacting unit that loads a receiver or debris box. The receiver or debris box serves as a receptacle for refuse or recyclable materials and has a capacity of one cubic yard or larger.

"Compost" means the product resulting from the controlled biological decomposition of organic materials. Garden waste, leaves, organic materials, and food waste are some of the materials that are, or in the future may be, source separated from the refuse stream to produce compost.

"Composting facility" means a permitted facility that processes, transfers, or stores compostable materials, including agricultural material, green material, vegetative food material, chipping and grinding, biosolids composting materials, and research.

"Construction and demolition debris" means waste building materials, packaging, and debris resulting from construction, remodeling, repair, and/or demolition operations on pavements, houses, commercial buildings, and other structures. (Title 27 California Code of Regulations, § 20164)

"Container" means a refuse, recycling, or organic materials cart, bin, or roll-off box provided by the franchise contractor in varying sizes.

"Contractor" means any person collecting or transporting residential, commercial, and/or industrial refuse, recyclable materials, and other organic materials pursuant to an exclusive refuse collection franchise agreement authorized by the City Council.

"Curbside recycling" means the collection of recyclable materials at curbside in front of residential dwellings to be separated at the MRF and eventually taken to various processing facilities.

"Designated disposal facility" or "disposal facility" means San Joaquin County's Foothill Sanitary Landfill, or such other landfill in San Joaquin County's disposal system as designated by the City.

"Designated materials recovery facility" or "designated MRF" means the Tracy Material Recovery Facility, or other such materials recovery facility as designated by the City.

"Designee" means an entity that the City contracts with or otherwise arranges to carry out any of the City's responsibilities of this chapter. A designee may be a government entity, a contractor, a private entity, a combination of those entities, or another entity as approved by the City, unless otherwise indicated.

"Disabled citizen" means the individual applying for the discounted rate who has proof of permanent disability (doctor's letter or a notice of award evidencing eligibility for Social Security Administration Supplemental Security Income Program for the aged, blind, and disabled is required), the garbage service is listed in his or her name, and the property is the individual's principal place of residence.

"Disposal" means the management of refuse through landfilling or transformation at permitted disposal facilities.

"Disposal facility" means any facility or location where the disposal of refuse occurs. The facility may incorporate one or more disposal methods.

"Drop-off recycling center" means a facility which accepts delivery or transfer of ownership of source- separated materials for the purpose of recycling or composting, without paying a fee. Donation of materials to collection organizations, such as charitable groups, is included in this definition.

"Edible food" means food intended for human consumption:

(a) For the purposes of this chapter, "edible food" is not refuse if it is recovered and not discarded.

(b) Nothing in this chapter requires or authorizes the recovery of edible food that does not meet the food safety requirements of the California Retail Food Code.

"Enforcement Official" means any City employee or agent of the City with authority to enforce a provision of this Code.

"E-waste" means electronic products including, but not limited to: computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, fax machines, and other electronic products.

"Food recovery" means actions to collect and distribute food for human consumption which otherwise would be disposed.

"Food recovery organization" means an entity that engages in the collection or receipt of edible food from commercial edible food generators and distributes that edible food to the public either directly or through other entities, including, but not limited to:

(a) A food bank as defined in § 113783 of the Health and Safety Code;

(b) A nonprofit charitable organization as defined in § 113841 of the Health and Safety Code; and

(c) A nonprofit charitable temporary food facility as defined in § 113842 of the Health and Safety Code.

A food recovery organization is not a commercial edible food generator.

"Food recovery service" means a person or entity that collects and transports edible food from a commercial edible food generator to a food recovery organization or other entities for food recovery. A food recovery service is not a commercial edible food generator.

"Food waste" means residential or commercial putrescible food waste materials that are purposely set-out for collection separately from refuse and recyclable materials, meeting health and safety provisions of the Tracy Municipal Code, and with the intention that they be composted or taken to animal feed lots.

"Franchise" means a special privilege granted to an individual or group to provide services in a particular area, i.e. providing a refuse collection service to the City.

"Franchisee" means any party granted a franchise as specified in this Chapter.

"Garbage" means, except for salvage, any putrescible animal, fish, fowl, storage, handling, or consumption of foods; except food waste, vegetable and fruit packaging, swill, or offal, and shall include containers or other non-putrescible material to which the particles of putrescible material are attached.

"Generator" means any person, customer, or entity that is responsible for the initial creation of refuse, recyclable materials, and/or organic materials.

"Hazardous waste" means waste or a combination of wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics, may do either of the following:

(a) Cause, or significantly contribute to, an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness.

(b) Pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or otherwise managed.

Unless expressly provided otherwise, "hazardous waste" includes extremely hazardous waste and acutely hazardous waste.

"Household hazardous waste" means products used regularly in and around homes, classified by State law as hazardous materials. These products include batteries, antifreeze, cleaners, glues, paints, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and petroleum products. These products, when discarded, may become household hazardous waste if not properly discarded.

"Industrial waste" means refuse originating from mechanized manufacturing facilities and factories, including food processing, vegetable and fruit packing waste, refineries, commercial construction and demolition projects, publicly operated treatment works, and/or solid waste placed in debris boxes.

"Leachate" means the fluid stream resulting from precipitation percolating through a pile or cell of refuse materials, and which contains water, dissolved solids, and decomposition products of solids.

"Licensed collector" means any person or entity operating under a collector's license issued by the City for the purpose of collecting or transporting refuse, recyclable materials, or organic materials, and includes special waste.

"Material Recovery Facility" or "MRF" means a permitted refuse facility in which recyclable or compostable materials are separated from the refuse stream for the purposes of recycling, composting, transformation, or disposal.

"Multi-family" means of, from, or pertaining to a residential premise with five (5) or more dwelling units. Multi-family premises do not include hotels, motels, or other transient occupancy facilities. Multi-family complexes of four (4) units or less are considered residential.

"Non-putrescible, dry waste" means dry materials that can be stored for long periods of time without decomposition or odiferous release and does not produce leachate. Non-putrescible, dry waste does not include putrescible waste, bulky waste, e-waste, organic materials, hazardous waste, household hazardous waste, liquid waste, or organic materials.

"Organic materials" means material that originated from living organisms and their metabolic waste products, including but not limited to: food waste, green material, landscape and pruning waste, nonhazardous wood waste, food soiled paper waste that is mixed in with food waste, biosolids, digestate, and sludges.

"Organic waste generator" means a person or entity that is responsible for the initial creation of organic waste.

"Putrescible" means refuse liable to undergo organic decomposition that typically involves the anaerobic splitting of proteins by bacteria and fungi with the formation of foul-smelling, incompletely oxidized products.

"Recyclable materials," "recyclables" or "recycled material" means discarded materials from a generator that are specifically approved by the City for collection in its recyclable materials collection program. No discarded materials shall be considered recyclable unless such material is separated from refuse and organic materials.

"Recycling" means the process of collecting, sorting, cleansing, treating, and reconstituting materials that would otherwise become refuse, and returning them to the economic mainstream in the form of raw material for new, reused, or reconstituted products which meet the quality standards necessary to be used in the marketplace. Recycling does not include transformation, as defined below.

"Refuse" means all solid waste intended for disposal and that conforms with the requirements of the Tracy Municipal Code for disposed solid waste, including but not limited to: all putrescible and non- putrescible wastes, whether in solid or liquid form, except liquid-carried industrial wastes or sewage hauled as an incidental part of a septic tank or cesspool-cleaning service; garbage (i.e., putrescible animal, fish food, fowl, or any thereof, resulting from the preparation, storage, handling or consumption of such substances); and rubbish (i.e., printed materials, paper, pasteboard, rags, straw, used and discarded clothing, packaging materials, ashes, floor sweepings, glass, and other waste materials).

"Residential" means of, from, or pertaining to single-family premises and multi-family premises of four (4) units or less, used for human shelter, irrespective of whether such dwelling units are rental units or are owner-occupied. Residential excludes hotels, motels, or other similar premises.

"Residential waste" means refuse originating in single-family or multi-family dwellings of four (4) units or less.

"Resource recovery" means the extraction and utilization of materials and energy from the waste stream. An integrated resource recovery program may include recycling, composting, and/or transformation with a landfill for residual waste disposal.

"Re-use" means the use, in the same form as it was produced, of a material which might otherwise be discarded.

"Roll-off box" means a receptacle for refuse and construction and demolition debris having a capacity of greater than eight (8) cubic yards that is picked up in its entirety by a dedicated truck for emptying at a separate location. Also known as a debris box or drop box.

"Salvage" means anything useful or valuable which is no longer useful in its present condition or at its present location, but capable of being recycled or reused.

"Self-haul" or "self-hauler" means a person who hauls refuse, recyclable materials, or organic waste he or she has generated, to another person or as otherwise defined in Title 14 California Code of Regulation § 18982 (66).

"Single-stream recycling program" means the collection of commingled recyclables.

"Solid waste" means all putrescible and non-putrescible solid semi-solid, and liquidized wastes including garbage, trash, refuse, paper, rubbish, ashes, industrial waste, construction and demolition wastes, abandoned vehicles and parts thereof, discarded home and industrial appliances, dewatered, treated, or chemically fixed sewage sludge which is not a hazardous waste, manure, vegetable or animal solid or semi-solid wastes, and other discarded solid and semi-solid wastes. Solid waste does not include:

(a) Hazardous waste.

(b) Radioactive waste regulated pursuant to the Radiation Control Law.

(c) Medical waste regulated pursuant to the Medical Waste Management Act.

(d) Materials that are designated by the generator for collection by the contractor as recyclable materials.

(e) Recyclables that are donated or sold to a third party by residential customers or service recipients.

(f) Materials that are designated by the generator for collection by the contractor as organic materials.

"Solid waste management" means the systematic administration of all activities which provide for the collection, salvage, storage, recycling, composting, transportation, transfer, transformation processing, treatment, and disposal of refuse.

"Source reduction" means any action which causes a net reduction in the generation of refuse.

Source reduction does not include steps taken after the material becomes refuse or actions which would impact air or water resources in lieu of land, including, but not limited to, transformation.

"Source separated" means the segregation, by the generator, of materials designated for separate collection for some form of materials recovery or special handling.

"Tier one commercial edible food generator" means a commercial edible food generator that is one of the following, each as defined in Title 14 California Code of Regulations § 18982 (73):

(a) Supermarket.

(b) Grocery store with a total facility size equal to or greater than 10,000 square feet.

(c) Food service provider.

(d) Food distributor.

(e) Wholesale food vendor.

"Tier two commercial edible food generator" means a commercial edible food generator that is one of the following, each as defined in Title 14 California Code of Regulations § 18982 (74):

(a) Restaurant with 250 or more seats, or a total facility size equal to or greater than 5,000 square feet.

(b) Hotel with an on-site food facility and 200 or more rooms.

(c) Health facility with an on-site food facility and 100 or more beds.

(d) Large venue.

(e) Large event.

(f) A state agency with a cafeteria with 250 or more seats or total cafeteria facility size equal to or greater than 5,000 square feet.

(g) A local education agency with an on-site food facility.

"Tipping fee" means the charge to unload waste materials at a transfer station, material recovery facility, landfill, or other disposal site.

"Transfer station" means those facilities utilized to receive refuse, recyclable materials, or organic materials; temporarily store, separate, convert, or otherwise process the materials, or to transfer the materials directly from smaller to larger vehicles for transportation to a disposal site.

"Transformation" means the process of incineration, pyrolysis, distillation, gasification, or biological conversion other than composting.

"Unacceptable materials" may consist of, but are not limited to:

(a) Hazardous waste.

(b) Infectious waste.

(c) Hot ashes.

(d) Free-flowing liquids.

(e) Animal carcasses.

(f) Items that may be easily scattered by the wind (these items should be bagged prior to placement in a container).

"White goods" means discarded, enamel-coated major appliances, such as washing machines, clothes dryers, hot water heaters, stoves, and refrigerators.

"Yard waste" means any waste generated from the maintenance or alteration of public, residential, commercial, or industrial landscapes including, but not limited to grass and vine clippings, leaves, tree trimmings, prunings, brush, and weeds. Prohibited materials from yard waste include, but are not limited to dirt, rocks, animal waste, or dead animals.

(Ord. No. 1324, § 1(Exh. A), 12-21-2021)