P.R. Laws tit. 12, § 1320
The following words or terms, whenever they are used or referred to in this chapter, shall have the meaning stated below, except when the context clearly states otherwise:
(a) Solid waste or residues.— Shall mean trash, debris, junk such as refrigerators, stoves, water heaters, freezers and similar commercial and residential devices; ashes, mud or any solid, liquid, semi-solid or gaseous nonhazardous waste material resulting from domestic, industrial, commercial, mining, agricultural or government operations.
(b) Reduction.— Refers to the result of the elimination or changes in the design, manufacture, packaging, use and handling of products in order to reduce their volume and harm once their useful life has ended.
(c) Recycling.— The process through which solid waste is collected, separated, processed and re-used as raw material or products.
(d) Recovery.— The process through which material is reclaimed from solid waste.
(e) Solid waste management.— The process through which solid waste is collected, transported, stored, processed or disposed of, according to a planned program.
(f) Solid waste management facility.— Any solid waste disposal area, reducing or recycling plant, transfer station or other facility whose purpose is to recover, process, store, or dispose of solid waste.
(g) Illegal disposal of solid waste.— Refers to the unauthorized discharging, depositing, injecting, spilling or leaving any solid waste in, or on a body of water or land in such a manner that said waste, or its contaminants, can penetrate the soil, be emitted into the air or discharged into aquifers.
(h) Legal waste disposal.— Refers to the depositing or processing of solid waste in disposal facilities that meet the requirements established in the applicable federal and Commonwealth laws and regulations.
(i) Disposal facilities.— Any facility used for the final disposal of waste in harmony with the Regional Solid Waste Handling Plan of the Authority.
(j) Processing.— Any method, system or treatment used to alter the physical characteristics or the chemical content of solid waste including the re-manufacturing of products.
(k) Recovered material.— The potentially recyclable material that has been removed from the rest of the solid waste to be sold, used or re-used, be it through separation, collection or processing.
(l) Authority.— Refers to the Solid Waste Authority created by §§ 1301 et seq. of this title.
(m) Municipality.— Any of the municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its corporations, agencies or instrumentalities.
(n) Person.— Any natural or juridical person.
(ñ) Program.— Refers to the Program for the Reduction and Recycling of Solid Waste in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to be designed and implemented by the Authority.
(o) Recyclable material.— Those materials that are potentially for processing and re-usable as raw material for the production of other products.
(p) Consortium.— Partnership or corporate entity organized by two or more municipalities to put the purposes of this chapter into effect.
(q) Separation at source.— Refers to the systematic classification of solid waste at the site where such waste is originated.
(r) Compost.— Refers to the controlled microbial degradation of organic waste to develop a product with potential value as fertilizer.
(s) Plan.— Refers to the recycling plan that shall be designed by the municipalities or consortiums to comply with the provisions of this chapter.
(t) Recycled content.— Refers to the material or product produced by using raw material recovered from other materials or products.
(u) Recyclable content.— Refers to materials or products for which raw materials susceptible to recovery, re-use or processing were used, to again convert it into raw material or useful products.
(v) Collection centers.— Sites where recyclable material duly separated for partial processing is bought or paid for, and is then transported to the recycling or storage facilities.
(w) Re-use.— Refers to the use, on more than one occasion, of articles for the purpose they were originally created [for] or for any other use that does not require the processing of such articles.
(x) Agency.— Shall mean any entity, dependency, department, board, commission, division, bureau, office, public or quasi public corporation, or government institution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(y) Community enterprises.— Refers to any effort originating in the community that has the intention of responding to the solid-waste problem, while attempting to improve the social and financial condition of its members and the community through the process of reduction, re-use recovery, separation, transformation, processing, transporting, manufacturing, marketing, composting or any other bona fide activity related to the management of solid waste, in harmony with the reduction and recycling program of the Authority and the public policy on solid-waste management and control.
(z) Post-consumer material.— Any type of product generated by the private, residential or commercial sector that has fulfilled the purpose for which it was manufactured and has been separated or re-routed from the solid waste stream to be collected, recycled and disposed. This also includes manufacturing residues that would otherwise go to the disposal or treatment facilities. However, this does not include manufacturing residues that commonly return to the industrial manufacturing process.
(aa) Community deposit centers.— A site where citizens voluntarily dispose of different recyclable materials in their respective containers, without financial gain.
(bb) Plastic bags.— A flexible type of packaging made of plastic used to contain or transport goods, which is supplied by a commercial establishment to a consumer in a point of sale.
(cc) Reusable bags.— A type of packaging made of fabric or any other washable material, which has handles to be carried; or durable plastic bags, specifically designed and manufactured to be reused in multiple occasions.
(dd) Commercial establishment.— Any business, store, or analogous place in which are conducted any type of commercial operation or commercial sales acts or retail goods transfer, or that belong to the same corporation or juridical or natural person.
History —Sept. 18, 1992, No. 70, § 2; Jan. 20, 1995, No. 13, § 1; Mar. 26, 2010, No. 38, § 2.