Litter Law Enforcement

CASE STUDY: Montgomery County Solid Waste District

Montgomery County has a large and diverse population of over 500,000 people. For this reason, the County Litter Task Force conducted two litter summits before creating their litter prevention plan for the County.

The plan aims to create a consistent litter prevention awareness message throughout the county while increasing litter prevention education and enforcement programs.

The main focus for the county’s litter prevention awareness campaign has been to educate the residents of communities to take ownership of their neighborhoods and to instill a sense of pride.

As part of this initiative, the county solid waste district selected eight areas to be designated as “Take Pride Neighborhoods”. These neighborhoods have been given more than eighty “Plant Pride, Not Litter” signs, which have been posted in strategic positions around the community to help spread the litter prevention message.

During the State’s celebration of Motorist Awareness Day, litter prevention signs and litter awareness materials were distributed to fast-food restaurants across the county. Along with their meals, motorists visiting the restaurants also received Lucky the Ladybug stickers, car litterbags and litter prevention information.

To enforce local litter laws, the task force established a very successful countywide litter hotline. Citizens can now report instances of littering and illegal dumping by recording the offender’s license plate and reporting it to the Hotline. This project has been funded to run for at least three years.

To increase support for litter prevention law enforcement, the Montgomery County Solid Waste District has hosted an environmental enforcement workshop, with representatives attending from each of the county’s jurisdictions. It has also distributed more than 500 environmental enforcement resource manuals and plans to hold additional enforcement workshops in the future for county prosecutors and local judges.

CASE STUDY: Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (Franklin County)

In Franklin County, which has a population of over one million, several county and city agencies work together to provide a program for stopping illegal dumping and littering in the county. The Anti-Dumping Program consists of a variety of different activities and strategies, including law enforcement, education, awareness and nuisance abatement.

Since 1992, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio’s (SWACO) Nail-A-Dumper Hotline has been an effective and integral part of Franklin County’s Anti-Dumping Project. The Nail-A-Dumper Hotline and website allow Franklin County residents to report illegal dumping and illegal dumpsites - 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

In 2003, the program was expanded to allow for the reporting of littering from motor vehicles. The program focuses on illegal dumping along secondary roads, utility right-of-ways, watercourses, abandoned lots, open fields, construction sites and railroad tracks.

With the support of their partner agencies, SWACO is able to accept complaints from all over the county and move quickly to catch illegal dumpers. Since it started, the Anti-Dumping Project has helped to convict a number of illegal dumpers in Franklin County.

Convicted dumpers can go to jail. Those that receive a jail sentence are required to pay a fine and court costs, as well as perform community service work, which includes cleaning up litter and illegal dumpsites.

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