Tustin, CA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Illegal dumping sits inside Chapter 3's miscellaneous prohibitions at Article 4, Section 4314(e)(2) of the Tustin City Code. The section first bars burning any municipal solid waste or divertable material within city limits, then separately makes it unlawful for any person, including the contracted hauler, to cast, place, sweep, deposit, or dump municipal solid waste or divertable materials upon any private or public property in the City, with a further, broader ban on dumping hazardous waste, medical waste, or abandoned vehicles or parts on any private or public real property.

The same section prohibits scavenging from a hauler's containers, transferring waste between vehicles in the public right-of-way, and hauling waste on City streets without keeping it covered and contained. Enforcement runs through the Director of Public Works, who has authority under Section 4370 to impound containers tied to a violation, and every dumping violation is independently declared a public nuisance under Section 4371, letting the City Attorney pursue administrative abatement, a civil nuisance lien against the property, or criminal prosecution. Because Chapter 3 does not set its own fine schedule, violations default to the citywide general penalty at Section 1121: infractions run $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second within a year, and $500 for each additional offense, while a misdemeanor charge can reach a $1,000 fine or six months in the Orange County jail, and each day the dumped material remains counts as a new violation.