Kitsap County, WA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

48, Residential Recycling Collection, applies to single-family and multifamily customers of the franchised solid waste company serving unincorporated Kitsap County; the incorporated cities of Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo and Bainbridge Island run separate programs under their own codes. 040(4)(A) sets the container standard that makes curbside sorting work: all carts must be standardized throughout the county, with a gray body and specific color lids to indicate service type, black or gray lids identifying garbage receptacles, blue lids identifying commingled recycling receptacles, and green lids identifying compostable organics receptacles.

The county's solid waste division may develop decals and other materials to be affixed to the carts, and the solid waste company must apply them at the division's request; every container in the county was required to conform to this color scheme by December 31, 2025. 020 defines the carts themselves as wheeled and lidded collection containers of thirty-five, sixty-four, or ninety-six-gallon capacity, and "commingled" recycling means the customer does not need to pre-sort paper from containers within the blue-lidded cart before setting it out for the biweekly pickup described elsewhere in the chapter. 040(4)(D) further ties container specifications back to Kitsap County Board of Health Ordinance 2010-1, Section 300, which governs collection container sanitation countywide.