(a) It is the intent of the Government to encourage, wherever practicable, the salvage, reuse, recovery or recycling of wastes; provided, that such activities, or the operation of facilities for such purposes, including junkyards and storage facilities, shall only be allowed under joint permit from the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and the Waste Management Authority, which permit shall be granted only to persons able to demonstrate the ability to conduct such activities within the provisions and restrictions of this chapter. The Waste Management Authority shall promulgate rules and regulations for the conduct of such operations or facilities. Salvage of waste at any storage or disposal site shall be allowed only with the permission of the owner or operator of such site.
(b) Other provisions of this Code notwithstanding, no agency or department of the Government nor any provision of the Code shall prohibit long-term contracts for the supply of solid waste to resource recovery facilities. Agencies or departments shall, where necessary, implement policy revisions to conform to the requirements of this subsection.
(c)
(1) Effective October 21, 1978, procuring agencies of the Virgin Islands Government shall, with respect to any purchase or acquisition of a procurement item where the purchase price of the item exceeds $10,000 or where the quantity of such items or functionally equivalent items purchased or acquired in the course of the preceding fiscal year was $10,000 or more, procure items composed of the highest percentage of recovered materials practicable, consistent with maintaining a satisfactory level of competition, unless such items—
(A) are not reasonably available within a reasonable period of time;
(B) fail to meet reasonable performance standards, determined, where covered, on the basis of guidelines of the Federal Bureau of Standards; or
(C) are only available at an unreasonable price, as determined by the procurement officer.
(2) All agencies having responsibilities for drafting or reviewing procurement specifications shall, not later than June 21, 1978, insure that—
(A) procurement specifications do not violate provisions of this section;
(B) any exclusion of recovered materials is eliminated;
(C) specifications do not require an item to be manufactured of virgin materials; and
(D) specifications require reclaimed materials to the maximum extent possible without jeopardizing the intended end use of the item.
(3) Procuring agencies shall, to the maximum extent practicable, manage or arrange for the procurement of solid waste management services in a manner which maximizes energy and resource recovery.
(4) Agencies that generate heat, mechanical or electrical energy from fossil fuels in systems that have the technical capability of using recovered material or fuel derived from recovered material as a primary or supplementary fuel shall use such capability to the maximum extent practicable.