Glossary
Waste & Recycling Services
AAll-inclusive Rate or Flat Rate - A monthly or per haul rate that is void of any additional charges/fees such as Administrative, Container Usage, Disposal, Fuel, Environmental, etc.Auto-Renewal, Evergreen or Rollover Clause - A contractual provision that automatically extends a contract beyond the initial or current term. Beware—standard waste services agreements usually contain automatic renewal provisions for successive and perpetual renewal periods equal to the initial term, typically 36 months. These clauses remain continuously in effect unless the customer sends a cancellation notification to the vendor by Certified Mail during a prescribed window of time.
BBailer - A piece of equipment used to compress and form recycled material into bales. Bulky Waste - Large items of municipal solid waste such as appliances, furniture, large auto parts, tree stumps etc., which cannot be handled by normal collection methods.
CCollection - The process of picking up waste from residences, businesses, loading them into a vehicle, and transporting them to a processing site, transfer station or landfill.Commodity - A waste stream that has some recycling market value.Commodity Rebate - Monies refunded to a customer based on the value of the recyclable materials recovered.Composting - The controlled, organic digestion of materials such as grass clippings, food wastes, and lawn debris.Construction and Demolition Waste - Waste that is primarily received from construction sites. Some examples of C&D waste include concrete, drywall, rebar, wood, paneling, linoleum, and carpet.Consumer Price Index (CPI) - This is a public index produced by the Federal Bureau of Labor statistics relating to inflation. Beware: standard waste agreements typically entail annual price increases equal to the CPI or a fixed percentage, whichever is higher.Container Service or Container Use Fees - A hauler-added fee or surcharge represented by vendors as reimbursement for their container ownership and maintenance activities.Cubic Yard (CY) - Measurement (length X width X height) frequently used to for waste volume and/or container size.
DDisposal Fee - A fee charged to the customers at a landfill or transfer station, usually associated with roll-off activities.District Manager (DM) or Route Manager (RM) - Waste & Recycling - This is the direct supervisor of the employees who perform the actual hauling activities.Drum - A container or a barrel (typically mild steel or plastic) in which special or hazardous waste is stored.
EEnvironmental Charge - Waste & Recycling - A vendor-added fee or surcharge not sanctioned by any governmental agency. Waste disposal vendors frequently represent this charge as reimbursement for their “regulatory compliance” activities.Evergreen Clause - See “Auto-Renewal”Extra Pickup (XPU) - Extra pickup of a regularly scheduled container (over and above the scheduled frequency).Extra Yardage - Extra waste picked up outside the container and charged by the estimated quantity of cubic yardage, as determined by the driver.
FFlat Rate - Waste & Recycling - See “All-inclusive Rate”Flow Control - Laws and ordinances used to direct solid waste to a certain facility for disposal.Franchise Area - A defined and restricted area where the solid waste activities and pricing are controlled by a municipal body. Customers typically have no ability to negotiate their waste disposal costs in franchise areas.Front-End Load (FEL) - The most common type of vehicle and container combination in which waste is dumped into the top front area of the truck as the container is lifted overhead.Fuel Surcharge - Waste & Recycling - A hauler-added fee or surcharge not sanctioned by any governmental agency. Waste haulers typically tie this charge to the fuel index at eia.gov or simply set an arbitrary percentage.
GGeneral Manager (GM) - Waste & Recycling - This individual is typically the supervisor of the managers who oversee the service personnel and the administrative functions for a defined service area.
HHauling Fee - A fee charged to roll-off accounts, calculated based on the amount of time it takes to pick up roll-off container(s) or compactor(s), dispose of the waste, and return the container(s) to the customer.Hazardous Waste (HW) - Manifested waste materials such as harmful liquids, powders or solids that must be treated to make them inert, and which are prohibited from all Sanitary Landfills, Subtitle D Landfills and Transfer Stations.Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) - Small quantities of materials such as paint, pesticides, herbicides and flammables used in common everyday applications, and which are prohibited from all Sanitary Landfills, Subtitle D Landfills and Transfer Stations.
LLandfill (or “Dump”) - A low area of land that is built up from deposits of solid refuse in layers covered by soil.Liquidated Damages - Waste & Recycling - This is a payment of an agreed upon sum of money as damages for breaching a service agreement. Beware--standard waste service agreements call for liquidated damages equal to 100% of the average monthly spend times the remaining term in the agreement (sometimes with a cap of six months).Lock Bar - An optional feature of front-load containers that allows a customer to lock the container. When the container is raised up and over the front-end loader truck, gravity causes the bar to drop allowing the container to be emptied.
MMaterial Recycling Facility (MRF) - A facility where recyclable commodities are dumped, sorted, bailed and marketed for reuse.Methane - A gas byproduct generated through natural decomposition of solid waste. In landfills, this gas is accumulated and either burned off using a flare or is converted to energy by waste-to-energy plants.Missed Pick-up (MPU) - Normally scheduled service that has been missed.Monthly Container Yards (MCY) - Unit of billing calculation that identifies the monthly amount of container capacity (i.e. 1-4yd X 3 services per week X 4.33 weeks in a month is 51.96 MCY).Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) - Typical non-hazardous waste that is disposed of at any Sanitary Landfill, Subtitle D Landfill or Transfer Station.
OOld Corrugated Cardboard (OCC) - Box or packing material which has two outer layers enclosing a corrugated piece of cardboard. This waste stream generally has some value at market, though the OCC market has swung wildly in recent years.Open Market Area - An area where waste service customers are free to select any vendor and negotiate services and pricing without municipal involvement. Conversely, see “Franchise Area”.
PPeripheral Charges - Waste & Recycling - These are fees outside of standard base service rates. These fees represent the largest variance and potential increase to a waste program’s total cost.
RRear-End Load (REL) - The 2nd most common type of vehicle and container combination, with REL vehicles waste is dumped into the back of the truck when the driver backs up to the container, gets out and manually moves the container to the lift mechanism affixed to the truck.Recyclable Material Offset - Hauler invoice item that refers to a rebate or charge corresponding with the current market value of the recyclable material.Recyclables (RECY) - Materials such as glass, plastic, aluminum, cardboard or paper that can be reused or converted to new stock material for/by other industries, businesses or processes.Roll-Off (ROL or R/O) - The 3rd most common type of vehicle and container combination, roll-off systems are used for large quantity waste applications like industrial or manufacturing clients. The trucks utilized for roll-off service have cable-driven mechanism that lifts and lowers the typical 8ft wide X 22ft long container onto the bed of the truck for individual hauling to and from the disposal site.Rollover Clause - See “Auto-Renewal”Route Manager (RM) - See “District Manager.”
SScrap - Materials, usually metal, discarded from manufacturing operations that may be suitable for reprocessing.Sludge - A semi-solid residue from air and/or water treatment processes, usually related to special or hazardous waste streams.Special Waste (SPW) - Manifested waste materials such as asbestos, contaminated soil, filter cake, etc. that are disposed of at some but not all Sanitary Landfills, Subtitle D Landfills or Transfer Stations.
TTipping Fee - A fee paid by anyone disposing of waste at a landfill or transfer station. Usually billed in ton units.Toter - Another term for a small plastic waste container on wheels.Transfer Station - Facilities where MSW is unloaded from collection vehicles and briefly held while it is reloaded onto larger, long-distance transport vehicles for shipment to landfills or other treatment or disposal facilities.
WWaste-to-Energy Facility - A facility where waste or decomposed waste is used to create an energy source, frequently using waste incinerators or landfill methane gas extraction.White Office Paper (WOP) - General business paper in shredded or un-shredded form. This waste stream generally has some value at market.Wood Waste (WW) - Items like pallets, crates, sawdust and other related wood products. This waste stream generally has some value at market.
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