Jefferson County, MO Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

220, Littering, makes it a crime to dump, deposit, throw, leave, cause, or permit the dumping, depositing, placing, throwing, or leaving of litter, or to allow unsecured materials to drop or shift off a vehicle load, onto any public or private property or waters in the county. A narrow exception applies only where the property is government-designated for waste disposal, the litterer is authorized to use it, the material goes into an installed receptacle, and the person is the property owner, has the owner's consent, or acts under the owner's direction.

The section defines litter broadly to include organic and inorganic waste, rubbish, refuse, garbage, trash, hulls, peelings, debris, grass, weeds, ashes, sand, gravel, slag, brickbats, metal, plastic and glass containers, broken glass, dead animals, and discarded materials of every kind. Two evidentiary rules make cases easier to prove: litter thrown or dumped from a moving vehicle, boat, airplane, or other conveyance creates prima facie evidence against the operator, and litter found to contain mail, bills, or other writing bearing a person's name creates a rebuttable presumption that person violated the section, even without an eyewitness to the actual dumping.