Issaquah, WA Trash & Recycling: Bin Placement Rules (2026)

IMC 8.04.020(B) sets the placement rule for every garbage can or unit in Issaquah. Cans must be placed in a convenient and easily accessible location, at a distance from improved public or private streets or alleys as the collector shall designate. The collector is the person under contract with the City for removal of garbage, as defined in IMC 8.04.010(A), so the hauler, not the homeowner, decides how far back from the street or alley the cans sit.

Timing is handled by two reasonableness tests rather than clock times. Cans cannot be placed out until a reasonable time prior to collection, and they must be removed within a reasonable time thereafter. The section prints no earliest set-out hour and no deadline for bringing cans back in, and it does not define reasonable. Cans left at the curb for days are the situation the second clause targets.

Mobile home parks and trailer parks that accommodate transient trailers get a special rule. The collector has discretion to direct the location of cans and containers either at one central location within the park or at each individual unit.

IMC 8.04.020(D) adds a clearance standard. All walks, paths and driveways from the garbage can or metal dumpster storage areas to the place of loading must have an unrestricted overhead clearance of not less than 10 feet. A low branch, a carport beam or a gate header over the route the collector walks counts against that standard.

The cans themselves must be portable cans or approved metal dumpsters of a size, type and construction approved by the Director of Public Works or designee under IMC 8.04.020(A) and 8.04.010(B). Garbage that does not fit in cans can be securely bundled or bagged under 8.04.020(C), and that subsection and (A) are the civil infraction provisions.

Garbage is removed at least once weekly from occupied residential premises under IMC 8.04.040, and the City sets the schedule and routes under IMC 8.04.120. Placement therefore has to line up with the collector's route day for the street or alley the property fronts.