King County, WA Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

010 sets the minimum service levels certificated haulers must provide for residential recycling and yard waste collection across the unincorporated service area; it does not reach Seattle, Bellevue, Kent, Renton, Redmond, Kirkland or the county's other incorporated cities, which run their own contracts. For single-family dwellings, recyclable-materials collection must be offered to every home, participation stays voluntary, and the required materials, newspaper, glass, tin and aluminum cans, mixed paper, cardboard, rigid plastics, polycoated cartons and scrap metal under 35 pounds, must be picked up at least twice a month on the same day of the week as regular trash collection.

A hauler wanting a different schedule for all or part of its service area has to petition the solid waste division in writing, listing the area, the number of customers affected, the proposed schedule and the reason, and the division decides based on customer impact and cost savings. Multifamily buildings get the same required materials list, but the collection frequency is whatever the division director approves rather than a fixed twice-monthly floor. Recycling containers must last at least seven years, use UV-stabilized plastic with at least 10 percent postconsumer content, and can never be plastic bags; haulers must deliver them at least seven days before service starts and keep hauler contact information printed on every bin.

Yard waste and food-scraps/soiled-paper organics collection, where the division director has authorized it, runs weekly year-round; where organics service is not offered, yard waste alone is collected twice a month from March through November and once a month from December through February, always on the same day as trash pickup. Where a road is impassable, the hauler must still provide alternative pickup from the nearest accessible roadway rather than skip the address.