Agricultural and Animal Waste: Waste generated by the production and harvest of crops or trees or the rearing of animals. Animal waste is a subset of agricultural waste and includes waste (e.g., feed waste, bedding and litter, and feedlot and paddock runoff) from livestock, dairy, and other animal-related agricultural and farming practices.
Circular economy: a systemic approach to economic development. In contrast to the ‘take-make-waste’ linear model, a circular economy is regenerative by design and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources.
Construction and Demolition Waste (C&D): Waste materials generated during the construction, renovation, and demolition of buildings, roads, and bridges. Construction and demolition debris often contains bulky, heavy materials such as concrete, wood (from buildings), asphalt (from roads and roofing shingles), gypsum (from drywall), metals, bricks, glass, plastics, building components (doors, windows, plumbing fixtures), and trees, stumps, earth, and rock from clearing sites.
Fossil Fuel Combustion Waste: Waste from the combustion of oil, natural gas, or petroleum coke; the combustion of coal at electric utilities and independent power-producing facilities, non-utilities, and facilities with fluidized bed combustion technology; or the combustion of mixtures of coal and other fuels (i.e., coburning of coal with other fuels) where coal is at least 50 percent of the total fuel.
Hazardous Waste: Waste with properties that make it dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment. The universe of hazardous wastes is large and diverse. Hazardous wastes can be liquids, solids, contained gases, or sludges. They can be the byproducts of manufacturing processes or simply discarded commercial products, like cleaning fluids or pesticides. Hazardous waste is regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle C (See RCRA hazardous waste for the regulatory definition). States can identify additional wastes as hazardous beyond those identified by EPA.
- Medical Waste: Any solid waste generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals, excluding hazardous waste identified or listed under 40 CFR Part 261 or any household waste as defined in 40 CFR Sub-Section 261.4(b)(1).
- Radioactive Waste: Waste containing substances that emit ionizing radiation. Radioactive waste is classified by regulation according to its source and/or content. The types of waste that are typically considered “radioactive waste” include high-level waste, low-level waste, mixed low-level waste, transuranic waste (i.e., elements heavier than uranium), and certain wastes from the extraction and processing of uranium or thorium ore. Spent nuclear fuel, which is produced because of the controlled nuclear fission process in nuclear reactors, is considered a nuclear material rather than radioactive waste.
- RCRA Hazardous Waste: A national regulatory designation for certain wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Some wastes are given this designation because they are specifically listed on one of four RCRA hazardous waste lists. Other wastes receive this designation because they exhibit at least one of four characteristics—ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity.
Industrial Non-Hazardous Waste: Waste generated from processes associated with the production of goods and products, such as electric power generation and manufacturing of materials such as pulp and paper, iron and steel, glass, and concrete. This waste usually is not classified as municipal solid waste by the federal government, but some states may classify it as such if it enters the municipal solid waste stream.
Municipal Solid Waste: Waste from homes, institutions, and commercial sources consisting of everyday items such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles and cans, food scraps, newspapers, appliances, consumer electronics, and batteries. (Excluded from this category are municipal wastewater treatment sludges, industrial process wastes, automobile bodies, combustion ash, and construction and demolition debris.)
Sustainable materials management (SMM): a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles. It represents a change in how our society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection. By looking at a product’s entire life cycle, we can find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources and reduce costs.
Zero Waste: the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.