National Waste & Sanitation Glossary

Definition: A municipal holiday scheduling practice where collection routes occurring on or after an observed holiday are delayed by exactly one calendar day for the rest of that service week.

Definition: The safety procedure of covering exposed positive and negative electrical contacts with non-conductive electrical or clear tape before recycling.

Definition: Small electronic appliances and consumer entertainment gear traditionally encased in wood or brown plastic, including televisions, stereos, DVD players, radios, and microwave ovens.

Definition: Curbside collection of oversized residential items that exceed the dimensions or weight capacity of standard rolling garbage carts, such as sofas, mattresses, and dressers.

Definition: The minimum unobstructed space required around automated curbside carts to allow truck automated mechanical lifting arms to grip and tip the bin safely.

Definition: A municipal curbside collection route utilizing a trailer-mounted wood chipper to grind residential tree branches and brush trimmings into landscape mulch.

Definition: A dedicated municipal drop-off depot accepting unbagged leaves, lawn clippings, and clean tree branches free from plastic bags, rocks, or construction debris.

Definition: The designated evening or early morning window during which residents are legally authorized to roll carts and bulk piles to the street curb.

Definition: A recycling collection system where fibers (paper and cardboard) are kept strictly separate from commingled containers (cans, plastic bottles, and glass jars) using separate carts or alternate pickup weeks.

Definition: Practices designed to prevent the solid accumulation of cooled cooking grease, fats, oils, and non-biodegradable wet wipes inside municipal sewer pipes.

Definition: The mandatory legal extraction and reclamation of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants from cooling units by certified technicians.

Definition: Residential products containing corrosive, toxic, flammable, or reactive chemical ingredients, including oil-based paints, cleaners, pool chemicals, pesticides, and solvents.

Definition: Heavy, non-combustible building materials that do not decompose or produce leachate, including concrete slabs, brick, stone rubble, ceramic tiles, and asphalt paving.

Definition: The percentage of total municipal solid waste redirected away from landfills through curbside recycling, composting, yard trimmings mulching, and materials reuse programs.

Definition: The capture of methane and carbon dioxide generated by anaerobic decomposition of organic waste in capped landfills to produce electricity, vehicle fuel, or pipeline natural gas.

Definition: Liquid that percolates through decomposing landfill waste, collecting dissolved and suspended matter that must be captured by bottom composite liners and treated.

Definition: A specialized processing plant that receives mixed recyclable materials and sorts them into discrete commodities using disc screens, optical sorters, magnets, and eddy currents.

Definition: A specialized heavy sanitation truck equipped with hydraulic compaction blades that compress bags of residential garbage inside an enclosed hopper at ratios of up to 4 to 1.

Definition: Safe containment and drop-off protocols for medical devices with sharp points or edges: including insulin needles, lancets, and syringes: that can puncture sanitation workers.

Definition: Everyday household garbage, trash, and refuse generated by residential homes, apartments, and small commercial establishments, excluding hazardous and industrial waste.

Definition: The separate curbside collection of food scraps, coffee grounds, soiled paper napkins, and yard trimmings for biological conversion into nutrient-rich compost.

Definition: A variable-rate sanitation pricing system where residents are billed according to the volume or weight of garbage they generate, using tiered cart sizes or prepaid official stickers.

Definition: Recycled plastic material that has completed its consumer life cycle, been collected through curbside bins, cleaned, and pelletized into raw plastic for new packaging.

Definition: A large, open-top rectangular waste container rolled onto a customer driveway by a hydraulic hook-lift truck for temporary residential cleanouts or remodeling projects.

Definition: Municipal laws prohibiting unauthorized individuals from taking items, scrap metal, or recyclable materials once placed at the street curb for city collection.

Definition: A collection method where all recyclable materials: paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, metal cans, and glass: are placed together into a single rolling cart for automated sorting at a Materials Recovery Facility.

Definition: A secure, tamper-proof drop box located at retail pharmacies, police stations, or municipal buildings for the safe, anonymous surrender of unwanted prescription medications.

Definition: The gate fee charged by landfills, transfer stations, and recycling facilities to unload waste, typically calculated per ton or flat rate per vehicle load.

Definition: A centralized industrial handling facility where local collection trucks consolidate waste into high-capacity tractor-trailer transfer rigs for transport to distant regional landfills.

Definition: Sanitation rules and specialized animal-resistant carts designed to prevent raccoons, rodents, bears, and flies from feeding on curbside residential garbage.

Definition: Large residential electrical appliances historically finished in white enamel, including refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, clothes dryers, stoves, ovens, and water heaters.

Definition: The habit of placing non-recyclable items into recycling bins with the optimistic hope that they will be recycled, which contaminates clean batches and damages sorting machinery.