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City Warns of Illegal Dumping Scams

08/20/2020
City Warns of Illegal Dumping Scams
The Allentown Bureau of Recycling & Solid Waste is urging residents to beware of persons offering to dispose of their junk.

The city is seeing an increase in non-reputable persons offering to collect trash, furniture and hard to dispose of items at low cost to the resident. However, these persons will often just illegally dump the items by the side of the road or down a hill, leaving the resident potentially responsible for the dumping.

Most recently, some Green Street residents paid for disposal only to learn their debris was illegally placed in a nearby church’s dumpster.

The Bureau of Recycling & Solid Waste contracts for most of the trash, debris and waste disposed of by residents as well as the recycling of boxes, paper, cans, bottles and yard waste.

Residents that have items that cannot be disposed of in the regular collection program, are urged to contact the bureau office for proper and legal disposal options, some of which have a cost associated with them.

To protect themselves customers are urged to:

• Check validity of hauling company (Better Business Bureau or reviews)
• Write down description of vehicle used to haul your items
• Write down the license plate of vehicle/trailer hauling trash
• Write down the name or phone number of haulers

According to city SWEEP and Animal Control Manager Bryan Billheimer, “if the price of disposal seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Customers can be held responsible if their trash is dumped illegally.

Fines for illegal dumping range from $1,000 to $5,000 plus court costs.

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Posted in: Homepage, Public Works, Recycling & Solid Waste | View Count: (4542)