Illegal dumping in Réunion Island: what to actually do

Do not touch, do not sort

Illegal dumping can contain asbestos (fibre-cement sheets), batteries, agricultural chemicals, broken glass or syringes. Do not move it, do not sort it, do not burn it.

Burning green waste and household waste is prohibited anyway, including on your own property.

Who is responsible

Removing illegally dumped waste falls to the town council, and in practice most often to the inter-municipal authority managing waste in your area: CINOR in the north, CIREST in the east, CIVIS in the south, TCO in the west, CASUD in the south-east.

If the dump is on private land, removal is the owner's responsibility, which complicates everything — hence the value of reporting early.

What the law says

Abandoning waste in a public space carries a fixed penalty, raised to €1,500 where a vehicle was used. For large-scale dumping, penalties are far heavier.

But note: observing an offence and attributing it to someone are two different things. Only a sworn officer, the municipal police or the gendarmerie can issue a penalty.

The mistake to avoid

This is the trap most neighbourhood groups on social media fall into: publishing a photo of someone dumping waste, or writing their name.

Three problems:

1. Image rights: publishing an identifiable photo of a person without their consent is unlawful.
2. Defamation: publicly accusing a named person of an offence, without a court decision, is a criminal offence.
3. Effectiveness: naming someone does not get the waste removed. It creates a neighbourhood conflict and distracts from the real issue.

On Kartié this rule comes with tools: faces are pixelated automatically before publication, plates are flagged for you to cover with a finger, and text containing a name, a private address or an accusation is blocked with a message explaining what to fix.

The right photo

Photograph the dump, not people. Show:

• the scale and nature of the pile (rubble, bulky waste, green waste, tyres);
• a fixed landmark that locates the spot (a post, a wall, a sign);
• the access route, which helps services know which vehicle to send.

What about the tip?

Most illegal dumping comes from a lack of information rather than pure incivility. The island's waste centres accept, free of charge for households, bulky waste, limited quantities of rubble, green waste, electrical waste and oils. Many inter-municipal authorities also offer a bulky-waste collection service by appointment.