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

The placement rule in the City of Olympia is one sentence in § 13.12.110(B): each can shall be located accessible to the collector of garbage and refuse within five feet of the stopping point of the collection vehicle. The code measures from where the truck stops, not from the house or the property line. The same subsection requires cans to be kept in a sanitary condition with the outside clean and free from accumulating grease and decomposing materials, and it states that G.I. type cans are not approved cans.

The code prints no set-out time, no pull-back deadline and no curb-or-alley rule for carts. Section 13.12.110(C) does say that no garbage or refuse will be permitted to be left in any street or alley of the city except in a suitable container provided for that purpose. Section 13.12.140 backs the placement rule with money: in addition to regular charges, the director of public works can add a charge when the can is kept elsewhere than immediately accessible to an open street or alley along which garbage collection trucks can travel. That charge is based on the additional time consumed. It does not apply to low-income elderly or low-income handicapped persons, and the section defines low-income as a household with income less than fifty percent of the state median household income. The city manager promulgates the rules that implement the section.

For screening of bins on commercial and multifamily sites, see § 18.36.060(I) of the Unified Development Code, which requires visual screening of solid waste containers visible from adjoining streets. The planned residential development standard in § 18.56.140 applies the same visual screening requirement to garbage storage, recycling and collection areas.