Opinion ID: 76726
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Solid Waste Handling Permit

Text: 41 Plaintiffs first claim that the defendants operated the SMP facility without obtaining a solid waste handling permit. Under Georgia law, a person generally must obtain a permit in order to handle solid waste. Ga.Code Ann. § 12-8-24 (No person shall engage in solid waste or special solid waste handling in Georgia or construct or operate a solid waste handling facility in Georgia ... without first obtaining a permit from the director authorizing such activity.). 22 It is undisputed that the defendants never had a solid waste handling permit and were, therefore, in violation of the SWMA if they handled solid waste unless an exception to the permit requirement applied. 42 Georgia has broadly defined solid waste as any garbage or refuse; sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility; and other discarded material including solid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and community activities. Ga.Code Ann. § 12-8-22(33) (emphasis added). The material on the defendant property, including scrap metal, junked cars, old drums, defunct USTs, and other metal objects, was solid waste because it was discarded material. See ILCO, 996 F.2d at 1131 (citing 40 C.F.R. § 261.2(a)(2)). 23 Thus, the defendants were required to have a solid waste handling permit unless an exception to the permit requirement applied. 43 Defendants contend that they did not need a solid waste handling permit because the materials on their property were recovered materials 24 and SMP was a recovered materials processing facility. 25 Recovered materials are excluded from the definition of solid waste. Ga.Code Ann. § 12-8-22(33); Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 391-3-4-.04(7)(a). If, however, materials that would otherwise qualify as recovered materials are accumulated speculatively, they are considered solid waste and must comply with all ... regulations. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 391-3-4-.04(7)(b). Thus, no permit was required if the materials on the defendant property were recovered materials, unless they were accumulated speculatively. The defendants contend that the materials in their facility fit this exception. The district court disagreed, finding that the materials on the SMP facility were accumulated speculatively and, therefore, a permit was required. We review that legal conclusion de novo. 44 We affirm the district court's determination that the materials on the SMP facility were accumulated speculatively. To show that recovered materials are not accumulated speculatively, SMP can show that there is a known use, reuse, or recycling potential for the material, that the material can be feasibly sold, used, reused, or recycled and that during the preceding 90 days the amount of material that is recycled, sold, used, or reused equals at least 60 percent by weight or volume of the material received during that 90-day period and 60 percent by weight or volume of all material proviously (sic) received and not recycled, sold, used, or reused and carried forward into that 90-day period. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 391-3-4-.04(7)(c) (emphasis added). The defendants, in order to satisfy their burden, must at the least, provide proof of the volume of sales in the form of bills of sale, or other records showing adequate proof of movement of the material in question to a recognized recycling facility or for proper use or reuse from the accumulation point. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 391-3-4-.04(7)(d). The defendants have not pointed to, and we could not find, any proof that is acceptable under the regulations to prove that the turnover rate of their scrap metal meets the necessary requirements. Therefore, we cannot find that the materials on the SMP facility are excluded from the definition of solid waste. On this basis, we conclude that those materials are discarded material, which is solid waste, and SMP must have a solid waste handling permit. 26