                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

REGIONAL AND LOCAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLANS (§ 10.1-1411)

A. The Board is authorized to promulgate regulations specifying requirements for
local and regional solid waste management plans.
			To implement regional plans, the Governor may designate regional boundaries.
The governing bodies of the counties, cities and towns within any region so
designated shall be responsible for the development and implementation of a
comprehensive regional solid waste management plan in cooperation with any
planning district commission or commissions in the region. Where a county, city
or town is not part of a regional plan, it shall develop and implement a local
solid waste management plan in accordance with the Board&#8217;s regulations.
For purposes of this section, each region or locality so designated shall
constitute a solid waste planning unit.

B. The Board&#8217;s regulations shall include all aspects of solid waste
management including waste reduction, recycling and reuse, storage, treatment,
and disposal and shall require that consideration be given to the handling of
all types of nonhazardous solid waste generated in the region or locality. In
promulgating such regulations, the Board shall consider urban concentrations,
geographic conditions, markets, transportation conditions, and other appropriate
factors and shall provide for reasonable variances and exemptions thereto, as
well as variances or exemptions from the minimum recycling rates specified
herein when market conditions beyond the control of a county, city, town, or
region make such mandatory rates unreasonable.

C. The Board&#8217;s regulations shall permit the following credits, provided
that the aggregate of all such credits permitted shall not exceed five
percentage points of the annual municipal solid waste recycling rate achieved
for each solid waste planning unit:

   1. A credit of one ton for each ton of recycling residue generated in Virginia
   and deposited in a landfill permitted under subsection M of &#xA7;
   10.1-1408.1;

   2. A credit of two percentage points of the minimum recycling rate mandated
   for the solid waste planning unit for a source reduction program that is
   implemented with the solid waste planning unit. The existence and operation of
   such a program shall be certified by the solid waste planning unit;

   3. A credit of one ton for each ton of any solid waste material that is
   reused; and

   4. A credit of one ton for each ton of any nonmunicipal solid waste material
   that is recycled.

D. Each solid waste planning unit shall maintain a minimum recycling rate for
municipal solid waste generated within the solid waste planning unit pursuant to
the following schedule:

   1. Except as provided in subdivision 2, each solid waste planning unit shall
   maintain a minimum 25 percent recycling rate; or

   2. Each solid waste planning unit shall maintain a minimum 15 percent
   recycling rate if it has (i) a population density rate of less than 100
   persons per square mile according to the most recent United States Census, or
   (ii) a not seasonally adjusted civilian unemployment rate for the immediately
   preceding calendar year that is at least 50 percent greater than the state
   average as reported by the Virginia Employment Commission for such year.
   				After July 1, 2007, no permit for a new sanitary landfill, incinerator, or
   waste-to-energy facility, or for an expansion, increase in capacity, or
   increase in the intake rate of an existing sanitary landfill, incinerator, or
   waste-to-energy facility shall be issued until the solid waste planning unit
   within which the facility is located has a solid waste management plan
   approved by the Board in accordance with the regulations, except as provided
   in this subsection. Failure to attain a mandated municipal solid waste
   recycling rate shall not be the sole cause for the denial of any permit or
   permit amendment, except as provided herein for sanitary landfills,
   incinerators, or waste-to-energy facilities, provided that all components of
   the solid waste management plan for the planning unit are in compliance with
   the regulations. The provisions of this subsection shall not be applicable to
   permits or permit amendments required for the operation or regulatory
   compliance of any existing facility, regardless of type, nor shall it be cause
   for the delay of any technical or administrative review of pending amendments
   thereto.

E. Each solid waste planning unit or locality with a population of greater than
100,000 persons according to the most recent United States census shall prepare
and submit a recycling survey report to the Department of Environmental Quality
annually. Each solid waste planning unit or locality with a population of
100,000 or less according to the most recent United States census shall prepare
and submit a recycling survey report to the Department of Environmental Quality
once every four years. Recycling survey reports submitted once every four years
shall only be required to include information for the most recent single year.
The first reports submitted pursuant to this section shall be submitted by April
30, 2013, for the reporting year ending December 31, 2012.

F. If a county levies a consumer utility tax and the ordinance provides that
revenues derived from such source, to the extent necessary, be used for solid
waste disposal, the county may charge a town or its residents, establishments
and institutions an amount not to exceed their pro rata cost, based upon
population for such solid waste management if the town levies a consumer utility
tax. This shall not prohibit a county from charging for disposal of industrial
or commercial waste on a county-wide basis, including that originating within
the corporate limits of towns.

HISTORY: 1986, c. 492, § 10-274; 1987, c. 249; 1988, c. 891; 1989, c. 440;
1990, cc. 574, 781; 1991, c. 237; 1995, c. 216; 1997, c. 495; 2006, cc. 7, 40;
2012, c. 834.