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

110(B) makes residential yard waste collection available throughout the City and defines exactly what counts. Accepted yard waste covers leaves, brush, tree trimmings, grass clippings, weeds, shrubs, garden waste from vegetable gardens, and other compostable organic material generated from landscaping, pruning and yard maintenance; branches and roots have to be smaller than four inches in diameter, and branches and brush have to be short enough to fit inside the closed yard waste container. The exclusion list is just as specific: stumps, demolition wood, large amounts of dirt, rocks, glass, plastics, metal, concrete, sheetrock, asphalt and other nonorganic land-clearing debris are barred, along with any food waste such as meat, fish, bones or fatty foods like dairy products and cooking oil.

Contamination has a direct cost consequence: if a yard waste container is found to contain prohibited material, the contractor will not accept it as yard waste at all, and instead hauls it to the landfill and bills it at the regular solid waste collection rate rather than the yard waste rate. Collection itself runs every other week on a year-round basis, on the same days as the customer's regular garbage pickup, so there is no seasonal shutdown of the program in winter months. 06 LMC alongside the other 'additional services' the contractor must provide, and the City Manager enforces the chapter through the Public Works Department.