Kennewick, WA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Kennewick's residential curbside recycling program runs through Waste Management (WM Northwest) on the same weekly day as garbage. Accepted materials in the recycling cart per WM's published Kennewick guidelines include: paper (mail, envelopes, newspaper, magazines, catalogs, phone books, paperboard boxes such as cereal boxes, and gift wrap without metallic foil); flattened corrugated cardboard; plastic bottles, cups, jugs, and tubs (clean and empty); plastic and paper to-go cups (clean, empty, no colored party cups); and food and beverage cans (clean and empty aluminum, steel, and tin cans and containers with no lids). The most important prohibitions: NO glass (Kennewick curbside does not accept any color of glass - glass goes to a separate drop site or the transfer station); NO plastic bags or film of any kind (they tangle in the sorting equipment - bag-recycling drop bins are available at most grocery stores under WA's product-stewardship plans); NO Styrofoam, no scrap metal, no electronics, no batteries, no needles, no diapers, no food waste, no yard waste. Materials must be loose in the cart, not bagged. Recycling carts use the same cart-placement rules as garbage: wheels toward house, three-foot clearance, at curb by 5:00 a.m. (June-September) or 6:00 a.m. (October-May), set the night before. Mandatory franchised collection under KMC 9.04 applies to recycling service in the same way it applies to garbage - the city's subscription requirement is met by the bundled WM service. Washington's underlying solid-waste-management framework is RCW Chapter 70A.205 (Solid Waste Management - Reduction and Recycling), which sets state policy for recycling minimum service standards.