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a~ <br />Page 2 <br />March 23, 200a <br />Counties are given express authority to establish and <br />operate solid waste collection and disposal facilities. Counties <br />and cities may establish and operate joint collection and <br />disposal facilities by joint agreement. The Agreement is such an <br />agreement. The Board of County Commissioners is empowered to <br />impose fees for collection of solid waste, use of disposal <br />facilities and the availability of disposal facilities all <br />related to solid waste. However, "recovered material" is not <br />considered solid waste in this regulatory scheme and is not <br />regulated as such. Also, solid waste in this regulatory scheme <br />means non-hazardous solid waste and does not include hazardous <br />waste. <br />Fees for' handling recovered material and household <br />hazardous waste are not subject to the limitations placed on the <br />County's ability to charge fees for the collection of solid <br />waste, the use of a solid waste disposal facility and the <br />availability of a solid waste disposal facility. Those <br />limitations are discussed in my February 7, 2003 letter and <br />relate principally to the inability to charge persons not using <br />County solid waste disposal facilities and the availability of <br />those facilities. <br />A recovered material is a material that has known recycling <br />potential, can be feasibly recycled and has been diverted or <br />removed from the solid waste system stream for sale, use or <br />reuse. To qualify as "recovered material:" <br />(1) a majority of the recovered material at a <br />facility shall be sold, used or reused within 1 year; <br />(2) the recovered material or the products or by- <br />products of operations that processed recovered materials <br />shall not be discharged, deposited, injected, dunked, <br />spilled, leaked, or placed into or upon any land or water <br />so that the products or by-products or any constituent <br />thereof may either enter other lands or be emitted into the <br />air or discharged into any waters including groundwaters, <br />or otherwise enter the environment or pose a threat to <br />public health and safety; and <br />(3) the recovered material shall not be a hazardous <br />waste or have been recovered from a hazardous waste. <br />The board of commissioners of a county has broad power to <br />charge fees for services. N.C. Gen. Stat. g 153A-102 provides: <br />"the board of commissioners may fix the fees...charged by county <br />