Kent, WA Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

045(A) requires collection companies to collect yard waste, defined as plant material cut to less than four feet in length and under four inches in diameter, from residential or commercial customers who sign up for the service at the collection company's contracted rates. The collection company bears all costs of removing, marketing, and disposing of yard waste that customers set out, and the section does not stop a customer from selling yard waste privately or self-hauling it to an approved King County site. Subsection (B) requires designated yard waste containers at curbside, alleyside, or another location approved by the director or collection company, with backyard collection reserved for special circumstances such as disabled or elderly participants.

Subsection (C) is the core prohibition: all persons and residences in the city are barred from disposing of any yard waste in a solid waste or recycle container other than a designated yard waste container. 010 defines yard waste as leaves, grass clippings, prunings, branches, brush, garden material, weeds, tree limbs, and other biodegradable waste the director designates, excluding rocks, dirt, sod (except incidental amounts) and demolition debris such as concrete, wallboard, lumber, or roofing materials; bundles may only use cotton or similar organic string. 050(I) separately allows residents to compost yard waste on their own property so long as the compost facility is operated consistent with applicable laws.