As used in this title the following terms shall mean and include:

1. "Cost" means the capital cost of a municipal recycling project including engineering and architectural services, surveys, plans and specifications; consultant and legal services; lands acquired pursuant to the conditions set forth in section 54-0709 of this title, and other direct capital expenses incident to such a project, less any federal assistance or other assistance received or to be received. "Cost" shall also include the capital, planning and promotional costs associated with waste reduction projects, the costs related to household hazardous waste collection and disposal programs, and the costs related to planning, educational and promotional activities associated with a recyclables recovery program. "Cost" shall also include beverage container assistance program grants to municipalities and not-for-profit organizations pursuant to section 27-1018 of this chapter. Provided, however, "cost" shall exclude any cost incurred prior to April first, nineteen hundred ninety-three, and shall further exclude costs related to planning, educational and promotional activities associated with a recyclables recovery program incurred prior to April first, two thousand.

2. "Recyclables recovery equipment" means structures, machinery or devices, singly or in combination, designed, constructed and required primarily to separate, process, modify, convert, treat, or prepare collected solid waste, which is included as part of a recyclables recovery program so that component materials or substances or recoverable resources may be used as a raw material for new products or for useful purposes other than for energy recovery, and for the collection and preparation for disposal of household hazardous waste.

3. "Recyclables recovery program" means a program undertaken by a municipality consistent with requirements of section one hundred twenty-aa of the general municipal law to provide for the environmentally sound recovery of recyclables, primarily involving the collection, aggregation and processing of recyclable materials for their use as raw materials for new products or for other useful purposes other than for energy recovery, through facilities planned, designed and constructed to ensure environmental protection and to maximize the potential for recyclables recovery. A recyclables recovery program also shall mean planning, educational and promotional activities to increase public awareness of and participation in recycling. Such program shall have been approved by the commissioner and undertaken consistent with any local solid waste management plan pursuant to section 27-0107 of this chapter.

4. "Recycling project" means recyclables recovery equipment, source separation equipment, a recyclables recovery program or any combination thereof required by a recyclables recovery program and the reimbursement to municipalities and not-for-profit corporations, as such terms are defined in section 54-0101 of this article, for the cost of a redemption center as defined in section 27-1003 of this chapter.

5. "Source separation equipment" means municipally-owned:

a. Add-ons or trailers designed to modify collection vehicles to allow sorting and separation of collected wastes held for the purpose of recycling;

b. Containers for the source separation and temporary storage of recyclable wastes by commercial, industrial and institutional generators, and for the source separation and temporary storage of recyclable wastes by single family and multiple family dwellings prior to collection;

c. Bins, sheds or other facilities for the temporary storage of materials prior to transport for the purposes of recycling; and

d. Collection vehicles specifically designed to hold and transport source separated recyclables.

6. "Waste reduction projects" means projects undertaken to reduce the volume or toxicity of material entering the municipal solid waste stream, by reducing the volume or toxicity of such material at the point of generation. Waste reduction projects shall include planning and educational or promotional activities to increase public awareness of methods to prevent the generation of waste including the reuse of certain materials, substitution of non-toxic household products, and the promotion of backyard composting.

7. "Household hazardous waste" shall mean solid waste emanating from households (including single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds and day-use recreation areas) which but for their point of generation, would be a hazardous waste under title 9 of article 27 of this chapter or a "pesticide" as defined in article 33 of this chapter.