(A) Not later than twelve months after this chapter is effective, the department shall:

(1) promulgate regulations governing the proper management or disposal, or both, of yard trash and land-clearing debris;

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 44-96-190

  • Collection: means the act of picking up solid waste materials from homes, businesses, governmental agencies, institutions, or industrial sites. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Compost: means the humus-like product of the process of composting waste. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Composting facility: means any facility used to provide aerobic, thermophilic decomposition of the solid organic constituents of solid waste to produce a stable, humus-like material. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Department: means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Disposal: means the discharge, deposition, injection, dumping, spilling or placing of any solid waste into or on any land or water, so that the substance or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwater. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Facility: means all contiguous land, structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land used for treating, storing, or disposing of solid waste. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Land-clearing debris: means solid waste which is generated solely from land-clearing activities, but does not include solid waste from agricultural or silvicultural operations. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Landfill: means a disposal facility or part of a facility where solid waste is placed in or on land, and which is not a land treatment facility, a surface impoundment, or an injection well. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Local government: means a county, any municipality located wholly or partly within the county, and any other political subdivision located wholly or partly within the county when such political subdivision provides solid waste management services. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Municipal solid waste landfill: means any sanitary landfill or landfill unit, publicly or privately owned, that receives household waste. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, company, association, partnership, unit of local government, state agency, federal agency, or other legal entity. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Resource recovery: means the process of obtaining material or energy resources from solid waste which no longer has any useful life in its present form and preparing the waste for recycling. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Solid waste: means any garbage, refuse, or sludge from a waste treatment facility, water supply plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and from community activities. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40
  • Yard trash: means solid waste consisting solely of vegetative matter resulting from landscaping maintenance. See South Carolina Code 44-96-40

(2) promulgate regulations establishing standards for the production of compost, including requirements necessary to produce hygienically safe compost products for varying applications; and

(3) comply with the requirements of the South Carolina Administrative Procedures Act and notify local government officials of the opportunity to provide input prior to issuing proposed regulations for comment under this article.

(B) Twenty-four months after this chapter is effective, no person shall knowingly mix yard trash and land-clearing debris with other municipal solid waste that is intended for collection or disposal at a municipal solid waste landfill or a resource recovery facility.

(C) Twenty-four months after this chapter is effective, no person shall knowingly mix other municipal solid waste with yard trash and land-clearing debris that is intended for collection and disposal at a composting facility. This prohibition does not apply to bags or other containers approved by the operator of the composting facility.

(D) Twenty-four months after this chapter is effective, no owner or operator of a municipal solid waste landfill shall knowingly accept at the gate loads composed primarily of yard trash or land-clearing debris unless the landfill provides and maintains a separate waste composting facility and composts all yard trash or land-clearing debris before disposal in the landfill or contracts for the composting of such waste at the facility.

(E) Any person violating the provisions of subsections (B) or (C) shall be subject to a fine not to exceed two hundred dollars. This provision may be enforced by a state, county, or municipal law enforcement official or by the department.

(F) All state agencies, all political subdivisions using state funds to procure items, and all persons contracting with such agency or political subdivision where such persons procure items with state funds shall procure composted materials and products where practicable, subject to the provisions of § 44-96-140(D).