Jacksonville Beach, FL Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 16-7 reaches any person, with no minimum quantity and no exception for small amounts. The protected places are the beach, every street, lane, alley or thoroughfare within the limits of the city, and the Atlantic Ocean out to three hundred (300) yards from the shore. The items named are trash, garbage, bottles and glass, followed by the catch-all phrase "any other matter."

The beach has its own overlapping rules. Section 6-46 makes it unlawful to deposit, discard, throw, place or pile trash or litter of any type, organic or inorganic, on the Atlantic Ocean beach except in public trash receptacles or authorized private receptacles for collection, and its list expressly includes cigarette butts, filters and products used for consuming tobacco. The same section bars depositing, leaving or burying fish or other marine life carcasses, remains or waste on or near the beach. Section 6-4 separately makes it unlawful to dump, cause to be dumped, place or cause to be placed any glass bottle or glass container on the ocean beach. The cross reference printed under § 16-7 points readers to Chapter 6 for beaches and bulkheads, Chapter 13 for garbage and refuse, and Chapter 28 for streets, sidewalks and other public places.

Section 16-7 itself carries no penalty clause. Section 1-11(a) supplies the default: where no specific penalty is provided, a violation is punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ninety (90) days, or both, in the discretion of the judge. Under § 1-11(b), any condition caused or permitted to exist in violation of the Code is also deemed a public nuisance that the city can abate as provided by law.