Joliet, IL Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 14-2, titled "Disposal," sets three flat prohibitions for the city: no person may cause or allow the open dumping of any municipal waste; no person may abandon, dump or deposit municipal waste upon public highways or any other public property, except in a sanitary landfill approved by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and in accordance with applicable law; and no person may dispose of municipal waste by open burning. These bans apply everywhere in the city, not just at residential collection points, and stand apart from the curbside placement rules in § 14-4, which govern where waste can legally be set out for authorized pickup.

A related but distinct provision, § 14-6, separately bars placing municipal waste at a collection point unless it comes from the premises served by that container or location, targeting cross-dumping between properties rather than open dumping on public land. 00 fine, an open dumping violation defaults to the Code's general penalty provision, § 1-8(a), which sets a fine of not less than $150 nor more than $750 plus costs per offense and treats each day of a continuing violation as a separate offense.