Burien, WA Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Burien Municipal Code § 8.15.110 puts the duty on the person in possession, charge or control of the property, not on the hauler. The list is wide: a dwelling, flat, roominghouse, apartment house, hospital, school, hotel, club, restaurant, boardinghouse or eating place, any shop, place of business or manufacturing establishment, and any place where garbage, refuse or swill is created or accumulated. Each of those persons must at all times keep, or cause to be kept, portable solid waste containers and must deposit the garbage and refuse in them.

The definitions in BMC 8.15.010 decide what counts as a container. A solid waste container is a portable device used for the collection, storage, and/or transportation of solid waste, including bins, carts, dumpsters, garbage cans, or reusable containers. A commercial dumpster therefore sits under the same rule as a household cart. Subsection (2) sets the operating standard: the portable containers must be kept secured and cannot be left open, except at the time garbage or refuse is being deposited into the container. The same section defines overloading as depositing solid waste in such a manner that the waste protrudes outside of a solid waste container.

Businesses in the downtown collection area carry an extra duty under BMC 8.15.130 to lock their containers, and every Burien business other than a home occupation must hold collection service under BMC 8.15.120. Chapter 8.15 sets no setback or placement distance for a dumpster, so location questions on a commercial lot turn on rules outside this chapter. Chapter 8.15 also names King County as the designated disposal agency under BMC 8.15.200, and the county is authorized to enforce solid waste laws within the corporate limits of Burien.