Chesapeake, VA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Sec. 62-5 requires that garbage, refuse, trash, debris or other solid waste be deposited only at a lawful solid waste management facility constructed and operated under Chapter 62. Sec. 62-6 goes further: it is unlawful to bring garbage or trash accumulated outside Chesapeake into the city and dump it anywhere other than a lawful facility, and it is separately unlawful to relocate waste generated at one address inside the city to another address in the city and leave it in the right-of-way for city collection, a provision aimed at residents dumping their trash on a neighbor's collection pile.

Sec. 62-7 broadly bars throwing or letting accumulate on streets, sidewalks or private premises any dead animal carcass, garbage, rubbish, newspapers, handbills, dirt, filth, shavings, manure, offal, ashes, vegetables, fruit or fruit skins, broken glass, tacks or tin cans, or anything else that would make the area unclean, unsightly, unsafe or injurious to health. Enforcement runs through the director of public works or an authorized agent under Sec. 62-32, and the zoning administrator may act where an unpermitted solid waste facility is involved. Written notice of violation is required before legal action under most of Chapter 62, except that Secs. 62-2 through 62-4 (the weed/debris notice scheme) carry their own separate notice procedure.