Farmington Hills, MI Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Sec. ' The same subsection separately forbids disposing of any of that waste 'into a lake, stream or other body of water,' closing off the two most common informal dumping methods, burying on a vacant lot and dumping into a waterway. It then adds a curb-specific rule: 'A person shall not place hazardous waste, industrial special waste or hot ashes at curb side or other designated location for collection,' meaning normal weekly pickup cannot be used to get rid of items the city's contractor is not equipped to haul.

Sec. 14-2(b) covers scavenging: nobody other than the property owner or occupant, their employees or agents, city employees, or the city's own hauling contractor may tamper with, take, carry away, pick through or scavenge a container, bundle or approved recycling container once it has been set out for collection. The definitions in Sec. 14-1 make the scope broad: 'hazardous waste' pulls in anything covered by the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Toxic Substance Control Act, or Michigan's own hazardous waste act, and 'industrial special waste' covers foundry sand, incinerator ash, sludge and similar manufacturing byproducts. Enforcement is assigned to the police department, the department of public services, and the department of planning and community development under Sec. 14-12.