Illegal Dumping

Illegal dumping is the offense of disposing of waste, whether household refuse, construction debris, or hazardous industrial or chemical material, at a location or in a manner not authorized by law, most commonly to avoid the cost or inconvenience of using a licensed disposal facility. The offense is graded significantly by the type of material dumped, with the illegal dumping of hazardous or toxic waste generally punished far more severely than the dumping of ordinary bulk refuse, because of the documented risk hazardous material poses to public health, drinking water and the surrounding environment, and many jurisdictions require specialized environmental agencies, rather than ordinary police, to lead the investigation and cleanup of a serious hazardous dumping incident. Illegal dumping by a business seeking to avoid lawful disposal costs, as distinct from an individual dumping household waste, is treated as a distinct and more heavily scrutinized pattern in environmental-crime enforcement, since a commercial operation dumping waste systematically over time can cause far greater cumulative environmental harm than a single individual incident. Because dumped waste is often left at a site with no witness present, illegal dumping investigations rely heavily on physical evidence recovered at the site itself, including material that can be traced back to its source, and, increasingly, on surveillance technology deployed at locations known to be recurring dumping sites.