§ 1285-i. Commercial and industrial waste audits. a. The corporation shall establish and be responsible for administration of a commercial and industrial waste audit program to help businesses identify and evaluate the potential at their New York facilities for reducing the amount of solid waste generated, increasing new materials recovery programs and otherwise reducing the amount of waste ultimately requiring disposal. The corporation shall in implementing said waste audit program coordinate activities with and actively foster the waste exchange program of the corporation and other waste reduction programs as is appropriate, and is further authorized to obtain the services, as necessary, of waste management specialists to conduct such waste audits. b. In implementing the commercial and industrial waste audit program, the corporation shall:

(i) establish an application process consistent with the rules and regulations of the program;

(ii) establish by rule and regulation a commercial and industrial solid waste audit program application evaluation procedure consistent with the requirements of this section; and

(iii) establish by rule and regulation, upon consultation with the director of the budget, a sliding fee schedule to offset the costs of the audit. The fee schedule established pursuant to this section shall be intended to provide revenues sufficient to meet solely the costs incurred by the corporation in performing such audits. The chairman is authorized and directed to deposit all money received in payment of fees under this section in an account within the miscellaneous special revenue fund. c. Waste audits conducted pursuant to this section may include but need not be limited to identification of:

(i) all waste generated within the facility;

(ii) the regulatory requirements associated with the recovery, reuse or disposal of such waste, and the implications of such requirements for various reduction and reuse options;

(iii) any methodologies, processes, equipment, or production changes that could be utilized to reduce the amount of waste generated and consumer waste resulting from the product, process or service manufactured, distributed or sold;

(iv) on site recycling or waste treatment technologies that could be utilized to reduce the need for waste disposal capacity;

(v) potential markets for waste generated by the facility, including local materials recycling programs, and the ability of such markets to readily absorb the wastes generated by such facility; and

(vi) economic practicality of alternative waste reduction strategies. d. Any person for whom a waste audit is prepared shall within one hundred eighty days submit to the corporation findings with respect to the report and the status of steps to implement any recommended strategies identified in such audit. e. Beginning January first, nineteen hundred eighty-nine, the chairman shall make an annual report concerning the activities undertaken pursuant to this section which shall include, at a minimum (i) the number of businesses which received assistance, (ii) the nature of assistance provided through the programs, (iii) needs and problems confronted by such businesses in establishing and implementing programs, and (iv) the number of businesses which applied for assistance. The chairman shall submit to the director of the division of the budget, the chairman and the ranking minority member of the senate finance committee and the chairman and the ranking minority member of the assembly ways and means committee an evaluation of the program prepared by an entity independent of the authority. Such evaluation shall be submitted by September first, nineteen hundred ninety and by September first every two years thereafter.