Kankakee County, IL Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Sec. 46-25 prohibits dumping, depositing, dropping, throwing, discarding, or leaving refuse on any public or private property in the county, or into any river, lake, pond, or other body of water, with four narrow exceptions: the property is a state EPA-designated waste disposal site, the refuse goes into a receptacle intended for that purpose under Sec. 46-30, the person is acting under a public official's direction during a special cleanup day, or the person is responding to an emergency and properly disposes of the refuse once the emergency ends.

The same section separately bars transporting refuse from a home, business, or farm just to dump it in, around, or on top of someone else's refuse containers on other property. A related section, Sec. 46-26, bars letting refuse accumulate on any building or property, improved or vacant, and requires refuse to be removed from a property at least once every two weeks. Enforcement of the whole solid waste management article runs through Sec. 46-33, which makes any violation of the article a class B misdemeanor, with each day of a continuing violation charged as its own separate offense, and lets the state's attorney seek an injunction to stop the dumping or shut down the operation causing it. The county health authority or its designee can inspect any property for compliance and, if refused entry, obtain a warrant from the circuit court.