West Des Moines, IA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

West Des Moines City Code section 7-1-3, Prohibited Acts and Conditions, bars dumping debris on the public right-of-way in two parallel provisions. Subsection C makes it unlawful for a person to throw or deposit on any sidewalk any glass, nails, glass bottle, tacks, wire, cans, trash, garbage, rubbish, litter, offal, or any other debris, or any other substance likely to injure a person, animal, or vehicle. Subsection G imposes the identical prohibition for streets, barring anyone from throwing or depositing the same categories of debris on any street.

Both provisions trace to the 1985 Code (sections 8-2.12 and 8-1.0103) and sit alongside related street and sidewalk offenses in the same section, including burning trash or rubbish in a curb, gutter, or paved street under subsection K, and pushing snow from private property onto the traveled way under section 7-1-4C. Because chapter 4-5's separate littering clause, section 4-5-11, is limited to assigning the resident owner responsibility for complying with the chapter's littering provisions, section 7-1-3 is the operative ban on dumping debris in the right-of-way itself.

Enforcement of Title 7 violations, like all code violations, falls under the citywide general penalty in section 1-4-1: the violation of any section of the code constitutes a municipal infraction, a civil offense carrying a penalty of up to $750.00 for each violation, or up to $1,000.00 if the infraction is a repeat offense.