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.
Last modified: February 3, 2019