Ohio garbage man admits dumping trash on his own property for years, could face prison time
What a trashy idea!
An Ohio waste hauler admitted in court this week that he illegally dumped massive piles of garbage on his own property for four years to avoid the costs of bringing the trash to a licensed landfill, authorities said Thursday.
Donald Combs, described by authorities as a “mass polluter,” dumped thousands of pounds of solid waste at a makeshift landfill adjacent to his home in the city of Milford and at an unlicensed commercial site run by his waste hauling business in Goshen Township, according to prosecutors.
“This garbage man drove off with your trash, but was never headed to a landfill,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. “Actions have consequences and he will now have to pay for the mess he made.”
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Some of the piles of trash found on Combs’ properties were mixed with construction and demolition debris and were more than 20 feet high, Yost said. The cleanup cost for the sites is estimated at nearly $1.3 million.
Combs, 52, found most of his clients by responding to ads on Craigslist, the attorney general’s office said in a news release. The illegal scheme allowed the cheating garbage man to undercut his competitors, who had to factor in the appropriate costs of properly dumping solid waste in a licensed landfill, according to the release.
Combs could now face prison time after pleading guilty to eight felonies, including illegal open dumping of solid waste, illegal operation of a solid waste facility without a license, illegal open burning of solid wastes and other environmental crimes.
He’s also embroiled in a separate case stemming from a 2019 fire on his residential property. Firefighters were called to the scene in March of that year and found an unattended fire involving solid waste, prosecutors said.
Combs also pleaded guilty in that case. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in both cases on May 27.
