Johnston County, NC Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Johnston County Code § 20-41, part of Chapter 20's solid waste article, makes it unlawful for anyone to dispose of solid waste in an open dump except on their own property. The same section bars leaving solid waste at a county recycling and convenience center or landfill unless a county employee is on duty to direct and supervise disposal, and it separately prohibits littering at those centers, defining littering to include dumping waste into a container and causing it to overflow. Dumping at the landfill outside the areas the landfill operators designate is likewise unlawful.

Subsection (d) gives the county a powerful enforcement tool: if dumped waste can be traced to a person, such as through mail or paperwork found in the pile, that traceability is treated as prima facie evidence the identified person disposed of it or caused it to be disposed of in violation. Subsection (e) makes any violation of § 20-41 a misdemeanor. The county also recovers its cleanup costs directly: it may collect the expense of removing litter or unauthorized dumped material at a recycling and convenience center or landfill from both the person who littered or dumped and the person who generated the material in the first place.

This sits alongside § 20-40, which requires loads of solid waste, demolition or landscape waste to be covered in transit and lets an enforcement officer cite the driver or owner under § 20-35, and § 20-37, which channels household waste only to approved disposal methods such as the county's convenience and recycling centers or the county landfill.