Freehold Township, NJ Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Chapter 203, Littering, defines litter broadly to include discarded aluminum, glass, plastic, rubber and paper waste, bottles, cans, cigarette butts, garbage, trash, debris and yard waste. Section 203-2's general prohibition covers any property, whether occupied, open or vacant, and whether owned by the person dumping, as well as any public place or body of water, unless the material goes into a public receptacle or an authorized private receptacle for collection. Section 203-6 targets the specific problem of out-of-town dumping: no one may bring, cart, remove, transport or collect litter from outside Freehold Township and bring it in for dumping or disposal except at an approved landfill, and any truck or vehicle carrying transported litter cannot be parked or left standing on a Township street or public property for more than two hours.

Related sections fill out the enforcement scheme: § 203-4 bars sweeping litter from a building, lot or sidewalk into a gutter or road and requires property owners to keep their frontage sidewalks free of litter, and § 203-5 bars throwing litter from a moving vehicle. Section 203-8 gives code officers a practical enforcement tool, a rebuttable presumption of ownership: if abandoned litter contains identifying evidence such as an envelope or item bearing a name and address, that person is presumed to be both the owner of the litter and the one who dumped it where it was found.

1, added in 2006, authorizes the Freehold Township Code Enforcement Officer or the Police Department to issue a summons, and lets any individual file a complaint directly with the Township Municipal Court.