Bergenfield, NJ Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 344-57 of the Sanitary Code makes it unlawful for any person to deposit, place or dump, or allow the dumping, depositing or placing of, any solid waste, refuse, garbage, yard trimmings, tree limbs or other materials upon any land or in any water within the Borough. The prohibition reaches beyond open dumping on vacant land: Section 344-57B separately bars putting residential or commercial garbage into a pedestrian litter receptacle the Borough has placed on public property or right-of-way, and Section 344-57C bars dumping refuse into a garbage or refuse container owned, contracted or maintained by another person or business, covering the common case of someone using a neighbor's or a store's dumpster without permission.

Responsibility for cleanup follows the dumping directly. Section 344-59A requires anyone who violates Section 344-57 to immediately remove everything they illegally dumped, placed or deposited on the land or waterway. Where the Borough cannot identify who did the dumping, Section 344-59B shifts that removal duty onto the property owner instead, so a vacant lot accumulating illegally dumped debris becomes the owner's problem to solve even without proof of who left it there. These provisions sit alongside Section 344-60's separate declaration that weeds, dead trees, stumps and construction debris left on land are a threat to public health, and Section 344-61, which lets the Health Officer serve a notice requiring removal within 24 hours.