Hawthorne, CA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)
Key Facts
- Governing section
- Hawthorne Code § 8.16.020
- Prohibited locations
- Any lot, land, street, alley, water, waterway
- Charge level
- Infraction under Chapter 1.22
- Default code penalty
- Misdemeanor, up to $1,000/6 months, § 1.20.010
- City exception
- City disposal or reclamation sites only
- Codified
- Ord. 2226 (2021); prior code § 9-801
Summary
Hawthorne Code § 8.16.020 bars anyone from dumping, placing or burying discarded materials or health-officer-condemned substances in any lot, land, street, alley, water or waterway. The city treats it as an infraction under Chapter 1.22 rather than the code's default misdemeanor, and the only exception is land the city itself uses as a disposal or reclamation site.
No person shall dump, place or bury in any lot, land or street, or in any alley, or in any water or waterway, any discarded materials or substance condemned by the health officer or the city, or any other deleterious or offensive substance; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to any land used by the city for a disposal or reclamation site.
Full Breakdown
Section 8.16.020, titled "Unlawful to deposit or bury," states that "no person shall dump, place or bury in any lot, land or street, or in any alley, or in any water or waterway, any discarded materials or substance condemned by the health officer or the city, or any other deleterious or offensive substance," carving out only land the city itself uses for a disposal or reclamation site. The prohibition traces back to the city's prior code § 9-801 and was last codified under Ordinance 2226 in 2021.
It sits at the front of Chapter 8.16, Solid Waste and Recycling, ahead of companion bans on letting waste collect on a property (§ 8.16.030), abandoning dead animals in a container (§ 8.16.040) and scavenging segregated recyclables (§ 8.16.070). Hawthorne's general penalty scheme in § 1.20.010 makes any code violation a misdemeanor by default, punishable by up to a $1,000 fine, six months in county or city jail, or both, with every day a violation continues charged as a separate offense. But Chapter 1.22, Infractions, specifically lists § 8.16.020 among the code sections the city has designated as infractions rather than misdemeanors, which caps the exposure to an infraction-level fine instead of a jail term unless the city attorney elects otherwise under § 1.20.030.
Because the illegal-dumping ban reaches lots, land, streets, alleys and waterways alike, it covers everything from dumping construction debris on a vacant parcel to discarding condemned material in a storm channel, and it operates independently of the separate street-and-sidewalk debris ban in Chapter 12.30 and the bulky-waste ban in Chapter 12.31.
Violations & Fines
Chapter 1.22 designates § 8.16.020 as an infraction, not a misdemeanor, so a first illegal-dumping citation in Hawthorne is punished at infraction levels rather than the code's default $1,000 fine and six months in jail under § 1.20.010. The city attorney retains discretion under § 1.20.030 to instead prosecute a dumping case as a misdemeanor or as a civil administrative action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is illegal dumping a misdemeanor or an infraction in Hawthorne?
What does Hawthorne's illegal dumping law actually prohibit?
Does the illegal dumping ban cover construction debris left on a vacant lot?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Hawthorne
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