Between 1980 and 2008, the proliferation of informal dumps containing solid domestic waste and sewage throughout the Cameroonian city of Garoua fueled a significant rise in the number of confrontations between the city’s residents. Comparative analysis of these conflicts in two neighborhoods reveals a complex relationship between the “place” of waste in communal urban spaces and waste disposal practices, which range from appropriation to abandonment, against a broader backdrop of questions of neighborhood sociability and political crisis.