Waukegan, IL Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 10-3(a) prohibits dumping, unloading, depositing, littering, throwing, placing, or leaving any solid waste, defined broadly to include ashes, garbage, refuse, building material waste, bulk items, landscape waste, manure, vehicle parts, and white goods, on streets, alleys, sidewalks, beaches, public property, ravines, or private premises. Three narrow exceptions exist: waste placed in properly permitted disposal locations and containers; commercial handbills distributed with the property owner's or tenant's prior consent, provided they don't violate the separate handbill rules in §§ 14-74 and 14-75; and bulk items placed where the city designates during the week after a declared natural disaster or emergency, or at another city-designated large-scale clean-up time.

Outside those exceptions, each violation is treated separately: the section specifies that each day an offense continues, and each individual article deposited, counts as its own separate offense, so a single pile of illegally dumped debris left for a week can generate multiple citations. 00 per offense, and the violator remains responsible for promptly cleaning up the waste and any resulting damage, or for paying the city's cost of doing so. Section 10-3(c) lets a court impose up to 48 hours of community service, such as public-area litter cleanup, instead of or on top of the fine, and § 10-3(d) authorizes the city to post these penalties publicly to encourage compliance.