Snohomish County, WA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

040(2) governs the recycling service zone, the area the county has designated as dense enough to support curbside pickup. Subsection (a) bars collection companies from selling garbage-only service there: single-family and multi-family garbage collection must be offered only in combination with recycling collection, with combined rates set by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). Subsection (d) lists the mandatory recyclables collection companies must accept when properly prepared: newspaper, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard, metal food and beverage cans and clean aluminum foil, glass food and beverage containers, PETE #1 plastic bottles, and HDPE #2 plastic bottles.

Other materials such as scrap metal or used motor oil may be added only if the solid waste management division director and the hauler mutually agree, and a WUTC-approved fee may apply. On containers, subsection (e) required haulers to supply a recycling container on request before February 1, 1998, and automatically to every new single-family customer after that date unless the resident opts out; subsection (f) requires containers at multi-family complexes unless the owner declines the recycling component; and subsection (g) requires containers be sized to hold everything that accumulates between pickups.

020(4) defines the recycling service zone itself by population density: inside a Census-designated urbanized area, adjacent areas with at least 200 people per square mile, or non-adjacent areas with over 4,000 residents at that same density. 030. 080(1).