“Board” means the Board of Public Utilities.

“Collection” means the activity related to pick-up and transportation of regulated medical waste from a generator, or from an intermediate location, to a facility, or to a site outside the State, for disposal.

“Commissioners” means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection and the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services.

“Departments” means the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Health and Senior Services.

“Dispose” or “disposal” means the storage, treatment, utilization, processing, resource recovery of, or the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any regulated medical waste into or on any land or water so that the regulated medical waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwaters.

“Facility” means a solid waste facility as defined in section 3 of P.L.1970, c.39 (C. 13:1E-3); or any other incinerator or commercial or noncommercial regulated medical waste disposal facility in this State that accepts regulated medical waste for disposal.

“Federal Act” means the “Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988” (42 U.S.C. § 6903 et seq.), or any rule or regulation adopted pursuant thereto.

“Generator” means an ambulatory surgical or care facility, community health center, medical doctor’s office, dentist’s office, podiatrist’s office, home health care agency, health care facility, hospital, medical clinic, morgue, nursing home, urgent care center, sterile syringe access program operating pursuant to sections 3 and 4 of P.L.2006, c.99 (C. 26:5C-27 and C. 26:5C-28), veterinary office or clinic, animal, biological, clinical, medical, microbiological, or pathological diagnostic or research laboratory, any of which generates regulated medical waste, or any other facility identified by the departments that generates regulated medical waste. “Generator” shall not include individual households utilizing home self-care.

“Health care professional” means a person licensed or otherwise authorized pursuant to Title 45 of the Revised Statutes to practice a health care profession that is regulated by one of the following boards: the State Board of Medical Examiners, the New Jersey Board of Nursing, the New Jersey State Board of Dentistry, the New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy, the Acupuncture Examining Board, or the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners.

“Regulated medical waste” means blood vials; cultures and stocks of infectious agents and associated biologicals, including cultures from medical and pathological laboratories, cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories, wastes from the production of biologicals, discarded live and attenuated vaccines, and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix cultures; pathological wastes, including tissues, organs, and body parts that are removed during surgery or autopsy; waste human blood and products of blood, including serum, plasma, and other blood components; sharps that have been used in patient care or in medical, research, or industrial laboratories engaged in medical research, testing, or analysis of diseases affecting the human body, including hypodermic needles, syringes, Pasteur pipettes, broken glass, and scalpel blades; contaminated animal carcasses, body parts, and bedding of animals that were exposed to infectious agents during research, production of biologicals, or testing of pharmaceuticals; any other substance or material related to the transmission of disease as may be deemed appropriate by the departments; and any other substance or material as may be required to be regulated by, or permitted to be exempted from, the Federal Act. The departments may adopt, by rule or regulation and pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C. 52:14B-1 et seq.), a more specific definition of regulated medical waste upon the expiration of the demonstration program established under the Federal Act.

“Noncommercial facility” means a facility or on-site generator, as the case may be, which accepts regulated medical waste from other generators for on-site disposal for a cost-based fee not in excess of the costs actually incurred by the facility or on-site generator for the treatment or disposal of the regulated medical waste.

“Transporter” means a person engaged in the collection or transportation of regulated medical waste.

L.1989, c.34, s.3; amended 2006, c.99, s.9; 2012, c.65, s.2.