Cass County, MO Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

530 defines littering broadly: depositing glass, glass bottles, wire, nails, tacks, hedge trimmings, cans, garbage, trash, refuse or rubbish of any kind on the right-of-way of a public road or state highway, in or on any waters within the county, on the banks of a stream, on land or water owned, operated or leased by the state or federal government, on county property, or on private property owned by another without that owner's consent. The section reaches material dumped anywhere from a roadside ditch to a neighbor's pasture, and it does not require proof the dumper intended to litter, only that he or she placed or caused the material to be placed.

540, separately criminalizes dumping animal carcasses into a well, spring, creek or pond, or leaving a carcass on a public road or on someone else's property to annoy another person. 00), and every day the dumped material remains constitutes a separate offense, so a load left on a county road shoulder can generate repeated assessments until it is removed. Enforcement in the unincorporated area falls to the Cass County Sheriff's Office for roadside and right-of-way complaints and to the Road and Bridge Department, which maintains the county road system and reports dumping found during routine maintenance.

Property owners who find dumped material on their own land, which they did not consent to receiving, may report it to the Sheriff's Office; the owner's consent is a complete defense built directly into the text of the section.