Trash and illegal dumping in Columbus, Ohio

This page maps every trash and illegal dumping report filed with the City of Columbus, Ohio: overflowing dumpsters, piled trash, and furniture or mattresses left in alleys.

About 1,500 of these reports also mention rats or mice. Outside a home, the trash is what the city can cite. Rats and mice in Columbus →

Get it handled

Want it fixed?

Report it to 311 with the exact address or the alley location, and a photo if you can. Say whether it is a one-time dump or a chronic overflow, because chronic cases build the enforcement record.

For your own bulk items, the city collects them on schedule. Booking a bulk pickup is free and beats the alley.

Know the rules

What counts?

An overflowing shared dumpster is the property owner’s problem, not the tenants’. Report the address it serves.

Dumped mattresses and furniture in an alley are enforceable wherever they sit. Trash that attracts rats gets treated as the more serious problem it is.

Block Report

Is your building or block already on record for trash and illegal dumping?

Search any Columbus address to see what neighbors reported in that building and on that block.

Free · no account needed

Live map

Want to see all 16,636 trash and dumping reports on a map?

16,636 trash and dumping reports across Columbus, plus about 81,000 complaints of every kind, plotted block by block.

Trash and illegal dumping map All complaints
Open live map ↗ Trash & DumpingAll other

Where it's most reported

Neighborhoods ranked by rate, meaning each category's share of the neighborhood's reports against its citywide share, so big neighborhoods don't win just for being big. Only rates with enough reports behind them are listed.
#1Weinland Park1.7×232 reports

See trash and dumping reports on the live map →

Often reported with

What else shows up at the same addresses. Address-level comparison, so this reads as a building-quality signal, not a coincidence of one phone call.
EncampmentsAddresses with trash and dumping reports are about twice as likely to also have encampment reports on file.→

When it gets reported

Share of the year's reports landing in each month. Each year is scaled to its own level before months are averaged, so a year with more reports, or a change in how the city takes them in, does not tilt the shape.
January · 6% of the year's reportsJFebruary · 7% of the year's reportsFMarch · 11% of the year's reportsMApril · 10% of the year's reportsAMay · 9% of the year's reportsMJune · 10% of the year's reportsJJuly · 10% of the year's reportsJAugust · 9% of the year's reportsASeptember · 10% of the year's reportsSOctober · 7% of the year's reportsONovember · 5% of the year's reportsNDecember · 6% of the year's reportsD

Reports peak in March at about one and a half times the volume of a typical month. The quietest month is November. A quiet autumn does not mean the problem went away. Reporting drops citywide in cold months.

All trash and dumping reports by month latest month: 862
862 JAN '25 SEP '26

Common questions

How do I report trash and illegal dumping in Columbus?

Call 311 or use the app with the address or nearest address to the pile, plus a photo. For a shared dumpster that always overflows, name the property it belongs to. The owner is responsible for capacity. The step-by-step reporting guide →

Are trash and dumping reports in Columbus going up?

They are steady. So far this year Columbus has logged about the same number of trash and dumping reports as the same months last year.

Where are trash and dumping reports most common in Columbus?

Rates run highest in Weinland Park, comparing each neighborhood's share of reports against the citywide share. No neighborhood is entirely without them.

Looking at a specific address?

Get the full Block Report, covering what's been reported at that exact address, the same building, and chronic neighbors within a third of a mile.

Search an address →
Source & method

What counts here. Reports of overflowing dumpsters, piled or dumped trash, mattresses and furniture in alleys, and trash conditions that attract rodents. Animal waste complaints are included here.

Data comes from official City of Columbus code enforcement records (Accela portal + ArcGIS REST API). Reports are categorized by keyword matching on complaint narratives and city record types, so counts are reports filed, not verified conditions, and automated matching can misfile individual records. The data window covers JAN 2025 – SEP 2026, so month-of-year patterns will sharpen as full years accrue.