2023 Rhode Island General Laws › Title 23 - Health and Safety › Chapter 23-18.13 - Toxic Packaging Reduction Act › Section 23-18.13-3. - Definitions.

§ 23-18.13-3. Definitions.
(1)
“Department” means the department of environmental management.
(2)
“Distribution” means the practice of taking title to a package(s) or packaging component(s) for promotional purposes or resale. Persons involved solely in delivering a package(s) or packaging component(s) on behalf of third parties are not considered distributors.
(3)
“Distributor” means any person, firm, or corporation who or that takes title to goods purchased for resale.
(4)
“Food packaging” means any package or packaging component that is applied to or in direct contact with any food or beverage.
(5)
“Incidental presence” means the presence of a regulated metal as an unintended or undesired ingredient of a package or packaging component.
(6)(i)
“Intentional introduction of PFAS” means deliberately utilizing PFAS in the formulation of a package or packaging component where its continued presence is desired in the final package or packaging component to provide a specific characteristic, appearance, or quality.
(ii)
The use of a regulated chemical as a processing agent, mold release agent, or intermediate is considered intentional introduction for the purposes of this chapter where the regulated chemical is detected in the final package or packaging component.
(iii)
[Expires July 1, 2027.]
The use of post-consumer recycled materials as feedstock for the manufacture of new packaging materials, where some portion of the post-consumer package or packaging component may contain amounts of the regulated chemicals but is neither desired nor deliberate, is not considered intentional introduction for the purposes of this chapter where said final package or packaging component is in compliance with § 23-18.13-4(d). (The provisions of subsection (6)(iii) of this section shall sunset on July 1, 2027).
(7)(i)
“Intentional introduction of regulated materials” means the act of deliberately utilizing a regulated metal in the formation of a package or packaging component where its continued presence is desired in the final package or packaging component to provide a specific characteristic, appearance, or quality.
(ii)
The use of a regulated metal as a processing agent or intermediate to impart certain chemical or physical changes during manufacturing, whereupon the incidental retention of a residue of a regulated metal in the final package or packaging component is neither desired nor deliberate, is not considered intentional introduction for the purposes of this chapter where the final package or packaging component is in compliance with § 23-18.13-4(c).
(iii)
The use of post-consumer recycled materials as feedstock for the manufacture of new packaging materials where some portion of the recycled materials may contain amounts of the regulated metals is not considered intentional introduction for the purposes of this chapter where the new package or packaging component is in compliance with § 23-18.13-4(c).
(8)
“Manufacturer” means any person, firm, association, partnership, or corporation who sells, offers for sale, or offers for promotional purposes packages or packaging components which shall be used by any other person, firm, association, partnership, or corporation to package a product(s).
(9)
“Manufacturing” means physical or chemical modification of a material(s) to produce packaging or packaging components.
(10)
“Package” means a container providing a means of marketing, protecting or handling a product and shall include a unit package, an intermediate package and a shipping container as defined in ASTM D996. “Package” also means and includes such unsealed receptacles as carrying cases, crates, cups, pails, rigid foil and other trays, wrappers and wrapping films, bags, and tubs.
(11)
“Packaging component” means any individual assembled part of a package including, but not limited to, any interior or exterior blocking, bracing, cushioning, weatherproofing, exterior strapping, coatings, closures, inks and labels. Tin-plated steel that meets the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specification A-623 is considered a single package component. Electro-galvanized coated steel and hot-dipped coated galvanized steel that meets the ASTM specifications A-525 and A-879 shall be treated in the same manner as tin-plated steel.
(12)
“Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances” or “PFAS” means all members of the class of fluorinated organic chemicals containing at least one fully fluorinated carbon atom.
(13)
“Post-consumer recycled material” means a material generated by households or by commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of the product that can no longer be used for its intended purpose, including returns of material from the distribution chain. Refuse-derived fuel or other material that is destroyed by incineration is not a recycled material.
(14)
“Substitute material” means a material used to replace lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PFAS, or other regulated chemical in a package or packaging component.
History of Section.
P.L. 1990, ch. 149, § 1; P.L. 1995, ch. 115, § 1; P.L. 2022, ch. 293, § 1, effective June 29, 2022; P.L. 2022, ch. 294, § 1, effective June 29, 2022.