Auburn, AL Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 20-31 states the core prohibition in a single sentence: it is unlawful to dump, or cause to be dumped, any garbage upon any property other than a sanitary landfill. That section replaced an earlier version repealed by Ordinance No. 1597 in 1995 that dealt only with landfill use, so the current text is the operative dumping ban. Section 20-32 backs it up with an itemized list of prohibited placement practices for residential trash, including putting material on medians or on vacant or abandoned property, blocking sidewalks, gutters, ditches or the city's drainage system, creating a traffic or fire hazard, and piling trash around fire hydrants, sign posts, guy wires, power poles, water meters, masonry work or fences and mailboxes.

The same section separately bars placing hazardous waste, tires, creosote-treated material, asbestos, petroleum products, paints or chemicals in a trash pile for pickup. These placement bans exist alongside the outright dumping prohibition because the city treats improper curbside piling and off-site dumping as distinct problems: one is a placement violation tied to the collection program, the other is a standalone offense regardless of any collection relationship.