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

Section 26-7 of the Pender County Solid Waste Management Ordinance, adopted by resolution August 21, 2023 under authority that includes G.S. 153A-136 and G.S. 153A-121, makes it unlawful for any person to engage in littering as the chapter defines it, or to violate G.S. 14-399, by throwing, scattering, spilling, placing, dumping, depositing, or causing or allowing solid waste to be blown, scattered, spilled, thrown or placed on any property, whether or not the property owner consented, and whether the act was intentional or unintentional. Section 26-6 defines 'litter' expansively to include garbage, household or business trash, refuse, debris, yard waste, junk vehicle parts, furniture and even dead animal carcasses, and defines 'littering' as scattering or depositing it where it may be carried by the elements onto public or private property, a street, sidewalk, sewer or waterway.

Section 26-15 additionally makes the owner, occupant or tenant of a property presumptively responsible when bulky waste sits outside a building or dwelling longer than seven days, and makes a vehicle's owner or operator responsible for any dumping done with that vehicle. Enforcement runs through the county's solid waste officer, an environmental enforcement officer under Section 26-5, with primary criminal and civil penalty authority set out in Section 26-13.