Gainesville, FL Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 27-73, the "Prohibited acts" section opening Chapter 27's solid waste article, lists 23 separate unlawful acts. The two aimed squarely at illegal dumping are subsection (1), which bars placing or causing to be placed any garbage, trash, recovered materials, or food waste on the property of another, and subsection (8), which bars depositing or disposing of garbage, trash, or recovered materials on the paved or traveled portion of any public street, or on any alleyway, sidewalk, bike path, stream, ditch, river, pond, bay, creek, park, other right-of-way, or public place in the city, except where the city has designated a disposal area. Subsection (6) adds a related ban on letting waste spill or blow from a vehicle onto any road, or hauling it uncovered over a public road.

Section 27-74(b) sets the enforcement path: except where otherwise specified, violations of this division may be enforced by civil citation if Section 2-339 authorizes it, by the general penalty at Section 1-9, through code enforcement board proceedings, or by the city seeking injunctive relief in court. Section 27-74(c) also lets the city manager or designee directly enforce storage, collection, and disposal rules against accumulations of illegally dumped material, and Section 27-74(d) authorizes the city to clean up a violation itself and bill the property owner or customer of record for that collection and disposal if a notified violation isn't corrected in the time the notice specifies. Burning garbage or trash anywhere in the city other than a permitted incinerator or landfill, without first getting a city permit, is separately prohibited under subsection (10).