Burleson, TX Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

The City of Burleson handles illegal dumping through its public nuisance article, Chapter 34, Article II, and through its litter article. Section 34-31(10) names the material: garbage, rubbish, trash, junk, rubble or debris, building materials, building rubbish, discarded furniture, tree limbs, leaves, household waste items, ashes, inoperable household appliances, vehicle tires, scrap metal and automobile parts. Both the accumulation or dumping of those items on any private property and the depositing of them onto a public right-of-way or private property are covered. Two exceptions sit in the same item: a municipal solid waste transfer, processing, storage or disposal site licensed by the state, and a traditional compost activity run by the property owner under city standards.

Section 34-31(11) goes further for buried and poured waste. It reaches the accumulation or burial of rubbish, junk, building material wastes, road material wastes, rubber tires, garbage, trash or refuse, and the dumping or burying of used motor oils or any other chemical substance not permitted by the state commission on environmental quality directly onto or into the ground. Item (9) adds decaying vegetation and anything that provides harborage for flies, mosquitoes, rodents, rats, snakes or vermin.

Litter is a separate offense. Under § 34-294, throwing or depositing litter on occupied private premises, or on an adjacent gutter, parkway, sidewalk or alley, is an offense, and § 34-296 does the same for open or vacant private property. Section 34-295 puts the duty on owners and occupants to keep premises, the adjacent gutter or parkway and half of the adjacent alley free of litter.

Enforcement runs two ways. A police officer or code enforcement officer can enforce the litter article in a public place or on private property (§ 34-299(e)). For nuisance cases, the city gives written notice requiring compliance within seven days, then can abate the condition and charge the owner (§§ 34-36 and 34-38).