Rockdale County, GA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Sec. 78-43 makes every property owner, occupant and lessee jointly and severally responsible for removing waste from their own land and bars anyone from letting waste accumulate there. Separately, it is unlawful to dump waste without a permit on any public highway, road, street, alley or right-of-way, in any lake, river, canal or stream, or on private property without the owner's prior consent, unless the dumping will not harm public health and does not violate state law. Burying or burning waste requires prior written permission from the county fire department or the applicable state or federal regulatory agency; the Environmental Protection Agency, the state environmental protection division and the state forestry service are named.

Sec. 78-44 makes it prima facie evidence of a violation when waste is thrown or dumped from a vehicle, boat or airplane, and creates a rebuttable presumption against a person whose name appears on mail or other papers found in dumped waste. Sec. 00, reimbursement of the county's removal cost, and in the magistrate court's discretion, an order that the offender personally pick up litter along up to one mile of public right-of-way or from public or private property, plus publication of the offender's name.

Each day a violation continues is a separate offense, and the court weighs the weight and volume of the dumped material in setting the penalty.