Downey, CA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 4116, first adopted in 1956 and amended by Ordinance 374 in 1969, prohibits any person from placing, depositing, throwing or dumping, or causing the same, garbage, swill, sand, cement, glass, metal, cans, bottles, papers, ashes, dirt, carcasses of dead animals, offal, refuse, plant cuttings, trash, rubbish, or any nauseous or offensive matter on any private road or on any public or private property of any kind in the city. The prohibition is not limited to city-owned land: dumping on a neighbor's yard or a vacant private lot is covered exactly the same as dumping in a street or park.

Downey also carries a second, more detailed dumping statute in its Solid Waste chapter. Section 5258, adopted with Ordinance 1020 in 1996, bars any person from dumping, depositing, releasing, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, burying, or otherwise disposing into the environment, including by abandoning barrels or closed containers, any solid or liquid waste on, in, or under any premises in the city, except in an authorized container or at a permitted solid waste facility. Section 5260 lets the City Manager and code enforcement officers enforce that chapter alongside specific state Penal Code sections on dumping.

Section 5266 sets punishment under the city's general penalty code, Section 1200, and Section 5268 independently declares any violation of the solid waste chapter a misdemeanor. Under Section 1200, a misdemeanor illegal-dumping conviction can bring a fine of up to $1,000, up to six months in county jail, or both, and each day a dumped condition remains can be charged as a separate offense.