Bellingham, WA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Bellingham's general health code, not its garbage-collection chapter, is what makes illegal dumping a citywide offense. 050 states plainly that no manure, garbage, offal, or vegetable or animal matter or nauseous substance detrimental to health may be dumped or deposited anywhere within the city limits except by special permit from the health officer. 040, goes further and bars the underlying pile: no deposit of manure, offal, or garbage may be made or permitted anywhere in the city, and no one may unload, discharge, or leave such material along any railroad, street, alley, highway, or public place, nor let a loaded car or flatbed carrying it stand on a public right-of-way.

Together the two sections cover both the act of dumping and the resulting accumulation left behind. 030 gives the health officer authority to order abatement; refusal to comply after written notice makes the owner liable for a penalty plus the city's cost of removing the nuisance. 050 must come from that same office. 080, and remain in force unchanged today.