Mo. Rev. Stat. § 260.360 (2026)

  260.360.  Definitions. — When used in sections 260.350 to 260.430 and in standards, rules and regulations adopted pursuant to sections 260.350 to 260.430, the following words and phrases mean:

  (1)  "Cleanup", all actions necessary to contain, collect, control, treat, disburse, remove or dispose of a hazardous waste;

  (2)  "Commission", the hazardous waste management commission of the state of Missouri created by sections 260.350 to 260.430;

  (3)  "Conference, conciliation and persuasion", a process of verbal or written communications consisting of meetings, reports, correspondence or telephone conferences between authorized representatives of the department and the alleged violator.  The process shall, at a minimum, consist of one offer to meet with the alleged violator tendered by the department.  During any such meeting, the department and the alleged violator shall negotiate in good faith to eliminate the alleged violation and shall attempt to agree upon a plan to achieve compliance;

  (4)  "Department", the Missouri department of natural resources;

  (5)  "Detonation", an explosion in which chemical transformation passes through the material faster than the speed of sound, which is 0.33 kilometers per second at sea level;

  (6)  "Director", the director of the Missouri department of natural resources;

  (7)  "Disposal", the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any waste into or on any land or water so that such waste, or any constituent thereof, may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or be discharged into the waters, including groundwaters;

  (8)  "Final disposition", the location, time and method by which hazardous waste loses its identity or enters the environment, including, but not limited to, disposal, resource recovery and treatment;

  (9)  "Generation", the act or process of producing waste;

  (10)  "Generator", any person who produces waste;

  (11)  "Hazardous waste", any waste or combination of wastes, as determined by the commission by rules and regulations, which, because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness, or pose a present or potential threat to the health of humans or the environment;

  (12)  "Hazardous waste facility", any property that is intended or used for hazardous waste management including, but not limited to, storage, treatment and disposal sites;

  (13)  "Hazardous waste management", the systematic recognition and control of hazardous waste from generation to final disposition including, but not limited to, its identification, containerization, labeling, storage, collection, transfer or transportation, treatment, resource recovery or disposal;

  (14)  "Infectious waste", waste in quantities and characteristics as determined by the department by rule and regulation, including the following wastes known or suspected to be infectious:  isolation wastes, cultures and stocks of etiologic agents, contaminated blood and blood products, other contaminated surgical wastes, wastes from autopsy, contaminated laboratory wastes, sharps, dialysis unit wastes, discarded biologicals and antineoplastic chemotherapeutic materials; provided, however, that infectious waste does not mean waste treated to department specifications;

  (15)  "Manifest", a department form accompanying hazardous waste from point of generation, through transport, to final disposition;

  (16)  "Minor violation", a violation which possesses a small potential to harm the environment or human health or cause pollution, was not knowingly committed, and is not defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as other than minor;

  (17)  "Person", an individual, partnership, copartnership, firm, company, public or private corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, political subdivision or any agency, board, department or bureau of the state or federal government or any other legal entity whatever which is recognized by law as the subject of rights and duties;

  (18)  "Plasma arc technology", a process that converts electrical energy into thermal energy.  The plasma arc is created when a voltage is established between two points;

  (19)  "Resource recovery", the reclamation of energy or materials from waste, its reuse or its transformation into new products which are not wastes;

  (20)  "Storage", the containment or holding of waste at a designated location in such manner or for such a period of time, as determined in regulations adopted hereunder, so as not to constitute disposal of such waste;

  (21)  "Treatment", the processing of waste to remove or reduce its harmful properties or to contribute to more efficient or less costly management or to enhance its potential for resource recovery including, but not limited to, existing or future procedures for biodegradation, concentration, reduction in volume, detoxification, fixation, incineration, plasma arc technology, or neutralization;

  (22)  "Waste", any material for which no use or sale is intended and which will be discarded or any material which has been or is being discarded.  Waste shall also include certain residual materials, to be specified by the rules and regulations, which may be sold for purposes of energy or materials reclamation, reuse or transformation into new products which are not wastes;

  (23)  "Waste explosives", any waste which has the potential to detonate, or any bulk military propellant which cannot be safely disposed of through other modes of treatment.