Sec. 27-5. Definitions.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:
Alley: A public passageway affording a secondary means of access to abutting property for utility, emergency, and solid waste vehicles.
Animal waste: Consists of large animal waste, research animal waste, and small animal waste as defined herein:
1. Large animal waste: Is animal waste, discarded bedding or flooring materials (such as straw or sawdust), or other materials from yards, pens, corrals, stables, or other containment structures for domestic animals (such as cattle or horses) or permitted wild animals, which are both herbivores and weigh more than 150 pounds.
2. Research animal waste: Is animal carcasses, body parts, or the bedding of animals that have been infected with agents that can cause human infection.
3. Small animal waste: Is animal waste, discarded bedding or flooring materials (such as straw, sawdust, or paper) from yards, kennels, dog or cat runs, chicken pens, aviaries, or other containment structures for domestic animals (such as dogs, cats, or fowl, including birds, chickens, ducks, or geese), or other tame or permitted wild animals, weighing 150 pounds or less.
Ashes: All residue from the burning of any combustible material but does not include ashes from medical waste, hazardous waste, or special waste.
Automated contained solid waste collection system: A contained solid waste collection system that utilizes City-specified solid waste containers and a solid waste collection vehicle equipped with a mechanized lifting device.
Bin system: A contained solid waste collection system that utilizes large containers varying in size.
Biohazardous medical waste: Any waste that is composed of, or has as a constituent, one of the following:
1. Cultures and stocks: Discarded cultures and stocks generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of a human being or animal or in any research relating to that diagnosis, treatment, or immunization, or in the production or testing of bacteria;
2. Human blood and blood products: Discarded products and materials containing free-flowing blood or free-flowing blood components; and
3. Human pathological waste: Discarded organs and body parts removed during surgery.
Bulk trash: Items as defined in Section 27-22.
City: City of Phoenix.
Churches: A facility identified and used as a place of religious worship.
Collection begins date: The first day of the scheduled collection period, as established and published by the Director.
Commercial containers: A solid waste container for use by a commercial user.
Commercial or industrial establishments: Any building, structure, or premises not defined as a dwelling unit in this section.
Commercial user: Any person, business, non-City resident, and any other user that is not defined herein and is not a resident user.
Compactor or roll-off system: A contained solid waste collection system that uses a stationary solid waste compactor and compactor bins or open top roll-off boxes.
Composting: A controlled condition under which organic material decomposes and stabilizes.
Construction and demolition solid waste: All solid waste, building materials, rubble, soil, and spoils resulting from construction, remodeling, repair, and demolition operations.
Contained solid waste materials: Solid waste, green organics, and recyclables placed in designated containers for disposal.
Contaminated load: Any load of solid waste, green organics, or recyclables containing unacceptable material.
Contaminated recycling container: Any Phoenix recycling container containing material or solid waste that is not recyclable or accepted in the City’s recycling program as determined by the Director and published by the Department.
Department: The City of Phoenix Public Works Department.
Director: The Public Works Director or the Director’s designee.
Dwelling unit:
1. A single unit providing independent living facilities for one or more persons including provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitation; or
2. One or more rooms within a building arranged, designed or used for residential purposes for one or more persons and containing independent sanitary and cooking facilities.
3. Dwelling unit and living unit are terms that may be used interchangeably.
Fly-tight: The lid of the container must fit flush around all contact points and prevent entry of flies or rodents.
Front-load container: A container ranging from two to eight cubic yards collected by an automated front-load vehicle.
Garbage: Swill, offal, and any accumulation of spoiled, partially or fully decomposed, rotting or discarded animal, vegetable, or other matter that attends the preparation, handling, consumption, storage, or decay of plant and animal matter including meats, fish, fowl, buds, fruits, vegetable, or dairy products and their waste wrappers or containers.
Green organics: Vegetative waste including plant clippings and trimmings, cut tree branches and limbs, clean untreated wood waste or lumber, and large animal waste, and does not include palm fronds or oleander material unless otherwise determined by the Director and published by the Department.
Green organics container: Is a receptacle:
1. Owned, clearly identified, and issued by the City to a person that elects and pays to participate in the green organics curbside collection program; and
2. Is used exclusively for the storage of green organics until it is collected.
Gross vehicle weight (GVW): Weight of vehicle plus load and driver of the vehicle used to determine fee for City of Phoenix solid waste disposal services.
Hazardous waste: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and any waste so defined by the provisions of Title 49, Chapter 5, Article 2, Arizona Revised Statutes, and 40 CFR Part 261.
Home appliance: Includes but is not limited to washers, dryers, stoves, dishwashers, hot water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, televisions, and computer equipment.
Hot load: Any vehicle carrying solid waste observed to be smoldering, smoking, on fire, giving off toxic odor, or leaking a potentially caustic substance.
Household hazardous waste: Any waste that would otherwise be a hazardous waste pursuant to Title 49, Chapter 5, Article 2, Arizona Revised Statutes, and 40 CFR Part 261 but is excluded as a hazardous waste because it is generated by the normal day-to-day activities of households.
Imminent health or safety hazard: Condition of real property, solid waste, or recycling container that places a person’s life, health, safety, or property in high risk of peril when such condition is immediate, impending on the point of happening and menacing.
Incipient hazard: Condition of real property that can become an imminent or health hazard if further deterioration occurs that can cause unreasonable risk of death or severe personal injury.
Industrial solid waste: Any solid waste as defined in this section produced as a result of any industrial operation.
Infectious solid waste: Any material that is or may reasonably be expected to be contaminated with agents that cause or significantly contribute to the cause of increased infection or infectious disease in human beings.
Institutional establishment: Any school, church, nonprofit organization, or government facility. Dwelling units owned or operated by the institutional establishment are not included in this definition.
Manual solid waste collection fee: Fees charged for manual collection or disposal services.
Manual solid waste collection system: A solid waste collection system that uses manual labor to load solid waste into a collection vehicle.
Material recovery facility: A site used for the collection, storage, and processing of recyclables.
Medical sharps: Discarded sharps used in animal or human patient care, medical research, or clinical laboratories. This includes hypodermic needles, syringes, pipettes, scalpel blades, blood vials, needles attached to tubing, broken and unbroken glassware, and slides and cover slips.
Medical solid waste: Animal tissue or any part of an animal body that has been removed by surgery, and any contaminated material such as, but not limited to, tissues, bandages, and hypodermic needles.
Mobile home development: A subdivision designed for mobile homes in which the lots are individually owned.
Mobile home park: Property owned and operated for the purpose of leasing or renting out mobile home space to tenants.
Motor vehicle tire: A passenger car or light truck tire.
Multifamily dwelling units: A building or buildings attached to each other that contain two or more dwelling units. This term is intended to apply to dwelling unit types such as duplex, triplex, fourplex, and apartments.
Non-combustible solid waste: Any miscellaneous solid waste materials that will not burn at ordinary incinerator operating temperatures (up to 2,000 degrees F) and are the inorganic component of solid waste.
Non-hazardous liquid waste: Any liquid waste defined as non-hazardous liquid waste by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
Non-profit agencies: Any entity recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as having 501(C)(3) status; a tax-exempt organization.
Obnoxious materials: Any solid waste that, when exposed, is unpleasant or offensive to the senses due to its odor or condition.
Organic materials: See Green organics definition.
Owner: A person, persons, or legal entity listed as current title holder as recorded in the official records of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.
Pathogenic liquid or solid waste: Any liquid or solid waste causing or capable of causing disease.
Person: Any individual, institution, state, municipal, county or private corporation, individual partnership, or other entity.
Premises: Land, buildings, or other structures, or parts thereof, where solid waste is stored or accumulated.
Private solid waste collection haulers: Solid waste collection operations owned and operated by private individuals or businesses that hold a privilege tax license issued by the City.
Public buildings: All buildings or structures owned or leased by governmental agencies and used for the purpose of conducting public business.
Public housing: All buildings owned or operated by the City to provide living quarters to eligible residents.
Public nuisance: Anything that is injurious or obnoxious to health, or is offensive to the senses, or is an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by any considerable number of persons, or that obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any street, alley, sidewalk, or public property.
Published by the Department: Publication of written information, materials or documents by the Department in a manner intended to provide notice to interested parties. Publication may be accomplished by direct mailing, conspicuous posting at City facilities, or posting on the City’s website.
Putrescible solid waste: Solid waste that is capable of being decomposed by microorganisms with sufficient rapidity to cause nuisances from odors or gases and capable of providing food for or attracting birds, insects, snakes, rodents, or animals capable of transferring a diseased bacterium or virus from one organism to another.
Recyclables: Clean solid waste that can be recycled including plastic and glass bottles, jugs, jars, and tubs; cardboard and food boxes; metal cans and beverage containers; newspaper, paper, envelopes, mail, magazines, and phone books; small metal appliances and scrap metal pieces; and mixed rigid plastic products. Items may be added or deleted from the list of acceptable recyclables by the Director and published by the Department.
Recycling container:
1. A receptacle owned, clearly identified, and issued by the City to participating recycling program users for their use as part of the City’s recycling collection program; and
2. A receptacle used exclusively for the storage of recyclables until they are collected.
Recycling nonparticipant: Recycling opt out or a resident that has been removed from the City’s recycling collection program.
Recycling opt out: A resident that has provided written notice to the City that the resident has elected to not participate in the City’s recycling collection program.
Refrigerants: Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) and other ozone depleting substances as defined in 40 CFR Part 83 Subpart F, and ammonia when used in an appliance.
Residential user: Any natural person living within the City boundaries paying a City monthly fee for residential solid waste service, and disposing of only solid waste, green organics, or recyclables generated from a dwelling unit.
Responsible party: An occupant, lessor, lessee, agent, licensee, owner, or other person having control over a structure or parcel of land.
Roll-off container: A container used to collect waste material that is eight cubic yards or greater and collected with a roll-off vehicle.
Schools: All public and private buildings used for preschool, elementary, specialized, or higher education purposes.
Solid waste: Any garbage, bulk trash, and other materials or products, including putrescible and nonputrescible waste, organic and inorganic waste, combustible and noncombustible waste, and liquid nonhazardous waste, but not including hazardous or household hazardous waste or human body parts.
Solid waste container: A receptacle owned and issued by the City used exclusively for the storage of solid waste, excluding construction and demolition solid waste, until it is collected.
Solid waste disposal facility: Any site owned, operated, or utilized by any person for the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, transfer, processing, treatment, or disposal of solid waste.
Solid waste fee: A fee assessed by the City for solid waste services.
Special waste: All solid waste that is listed or classified as a special waste pursuant to Title 49 Arizona Revised Statutes.
Tare weight: Empty weight of vehicle with driver.
Townhouses or condominiums: All individually owned dwelling units sharing a common area and with two or more units sharing a common wall.
Unacceptable material: Any material the City has deemed improper for collection as determined by the Director and published by the Department.
Volume based service fee: A fee charged for collection or disposal services based on the quantity of waste material, the size of container, or both.
Watertight: The lid of the container must fit flush around all contact points and prevent entry of rain. (Ord. No. G-4623, § 1, 2004; Ord. No. G-5756, 2012; Ord. No. G-5920, 2014; Ord. No. G-6782, § 1, 2021)