The Department shall support local, regional, and statewide programs to control, prevent, and eliminate litter from the Commonwealth and to encourage the recycling and beneficial use of discarded materials to the maximum practical extent. Every department of state government and all governmental units and agencies of the Commonwealth shall cooperate with the Department in the administration and enforcement of this article.

Terms Used In Virginia Code 10.1-1415

  • Beneficial use: means a use that is of benefit as a substitute for natural or commercial products and does not contribute to adverse effects on health or the environment. See Virginia Code 10.1-1414
  • Department: means the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
  • Litter: means all waste material disposable packages or containers but not including the wastes of the primary processes of mining, logging, sawmilling, farming, or manufacturing. See Virginia Code 10.1-1414
  • Recycling: means the process of separating a given waste material from the waste stream and processing it so that it may be used again as a raw material for a product which may or may not be similar to the original product. See Virginia Code 10.1-1414
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
  • Waste: means any solid, hazardous, or radioactive waste as defined in this section. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400

This article is intended to add to and coordinate existing litter control removal and recycling efforts, and not to terminate existing efforts nor, except as specifically stated, to repeal or affect any state law governing or prohibiting litter or the control and disposition of waste.

1987, c. 234, § 10-277; 1988, c. 891; 1989, c. 284; 1995, c. 417; 2018, c. 615.