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

A requires containers to sit 'in a convenient, accessible location as near as practicable to the approximate rear of the building or near the alley,' at ground level or on a sturdy rack no more than fourteen inches above the ground, sunken cans may sit below grade. Where no suitable spot exists, SPU's Director and the customer can agree on an alternate location. Curbside and alley collection has its own placement grid: properties with level planting strips must place containers in the strip or driveway within one yard of the curb; properties with sufficiently wide alleys place containers in the alley, or within one yard of the alley gate if the gate itself sits within a yard of the alley; properties with sidewalks but no planting strip place containers on the owner's property within one yard of the sidewalk if it's level; sloped sites get the nearest reasonably level spot; and sites with no sidewalk, no planting strip, or dense shrubbery blocking access get a placement the customer and collector agree suits the property.

Subsection B is the timing rule: containers 'shall not be placed on the sidewalk or in the planting strip or the alley for collection until a reasonable time prior to collection' and 'shall be removed within a reasonable time thereafter', Seattle doesn't fix an exact hour, but leaving a can out for days on either side of pickup day runs afoul of this rule. '