Garbage & Recycling Services
King County ensures that garbage and recycling collection and disposal services are available in the unincorporated areas and in 37 of the 39 cities in the county, excluding only Seattle and Milton. Seattle provides its own collection services, and Milton is part of Pierce County’s system.
The collection of garbage and recyclables in the county is provided by private solid waste management companies, or haulers, except in Enumclaw and Skykomish, which operate their own collection systems.
Garbage
Locate the hauler in your area. Find out how to contact your garbage hauler for information about pickup schedules, missed pickups, how to reduce the size of your garbage can and how to get new garbage containers.
Recycling
Recycling services are available to most King County residents and businesses. Find out how to get recycling services if you live in a house, apartment or condominium. Businesses can contract for recycling services from a variety of recyclers. Find out what to put in the recycle bin.
Recycling Collection Events
Residents can recycle items that may not be collected through curbside services at neighborhood recycling events. Locate events near you.
Recycle More. It’s Easy To Do.
A new recycling campaign shows King County residents how to make recycling easier and increase the amount recycled in the county.
Yard Waste
Yard waste services are available to most King County residents along with curbside garbage and recycling services. Businesses can obtain yard waste service from their garbage haulers or from yard waste companies.
Food Scraps
In many areas of King County you can put food scraps and soiled paper ( PDF, 348 K) in your yard waste cart so they can be recycled into compost. In King County, more than 35 percent (256,000 tons) of the waste collected from single-family residences is composed of food scraps and soiled paper.