Bensalem, PA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Bensalem Township Code Section 107-17, part of Article III, Dumping and Burning, adopted by Ord. No. 415 on December 19, 1988, bars any person, partnership, association, corporation or governmental entity from using property in the Township to fill land, dump or bury garbage, refuse, trash, debris, uprooted trees and vegetation, or discarded wood, plaster, metals, bricks, concrete and dredging waste, regardless of where the material was generated. The only carve-out covers material that federal or Commonwealth law recognizes as lawful fill, so long as the filling, dumping or burying still follows the applicable laws and regulations in force.

Article I of the same chapter reinforces the ban: Section 107-5.12(d) makes it unlawful to use, maintain or operate an open dump, and Section 107-5.12(f) makes it unlawful to throw, place or deposit solid waste in a street, alley, sidewalk, body of water or public or private property outside the article's procedures. Section 107-5.17(b) separately treats unauthorized dumping in commercial containers as its own misdemeanor. Section 107-20 lets the Township treat any continuing dumping violation as a nuisance and pursue an equitable action to abate it in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, on top of the criminal fine in Section 107-19.