Garbage Guidelines

Hazardous Waste - drop off at disposal sites

Hazardous waste, including oil-based paint, CFL bulbs, batteries, chemicals, pesticides, propane tanks, and automobile fluids, do not belong in the trash. Bring them to these locations for proper disposal:

• Factoria Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Site in Bellevue
  There is no cost for disposal of hazardous material.
  
  
• Hazardous Wastemobile
  The roving Wastemobile travels to communities throughout King County on a periodic basis, offering a local option for disposal of hazardous waste. The Wastemobile typically comes to Kirkland in May. There is no cost for disposal of hazardous material.
  
  

Medicine and Sharps - drop off at disposal sites

Do not throw away or flush unwanted medicine. Safely dispose of prescription and over-the-counter medicine at secure medicine return kiosks in Kirkland.

Sharps should be collected in a sharps container or 2-liter bottle and disposed at safe drop locations in King County, which include a drop box in Bellevue and the Shoreline Transfer Station.

Electronics - recycle next to the cart or at drop-offs

Do not throw away electronics. Recycle electronics for free with the curbside electronics recycling program or at E-Cycle Washington drop-off sites.

Food - compost in your gray food and yard cart

While composting food is not required in Kirkland, it is strongly encourage to put wasted food in the food and yard waste cart instead of throwing it away. Food that's thrown away sits in the landfill for years before it decomposes. Food placed in the gray food and yard waste cart is composted and turned into a rich soil amendment. Composting food is a simple and impactful way to reduce a household's environmental impact.

Yard Waste - compost in the gray food and yard cart

Yard waste should be disposed in the gray food and yard waste cart. However, certain weeds are so important to control, and easy to spread, that they are recommended to be disposed in the garbage instead of yard waste.

For large bulky item such as a mattresses or couches that cannot be reused Waste Management offers bulky collection curbside for single-family residents. Each year single-family residents have one free bulky item collection, and additional items can be collected for a charge. 

Oversize items, like mattresses and unusable furniture, can be disposed of as trash for a charge at King County Transfer Stations. In Kirkland, the Houghton Transfer Station is located in the Bridle Trails neighborhood. Recycling options for oversize items, including appliances and oversize scrap metal, are available at the Factoria Transfer Station in Bellevue and the Shoreline Transfer Station in Shoreline. 

Garbage does not get sorted after the collection truck picks it up. The same day it's picked up, it goes to the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill in Maple Valley. No one sorts the garbage to pull out recyclables or compostable material -- once something is thrown away, that material is gone for good.

Dozens of trucks a day dump their loads into open cells and bulldozers compress the material. When the cell is full, it's covered in dirt and left to decompose (very slowly - think centuries). Perforated pipes suck methane gas produced during decomposition to an onsite plant to produce energy. Other pipes route rainwater that gets contaminated from running through the garbage to leachate ponds where huge turbines froth the water so toxins will break down.

Because there is a limited amount of unoccupied land for landfills, and a finite amount of natural resources, it is important that everything put in the garbage are things that really cannot be recycled or composted. The city encourages all residents and businesses to take steps to prevent and reduce waste, and have goals for reducing the waste our community generates.

Preventing waste is the best way to reduce garbage. Avoid generating waste by buying only what one needs, buying used, and avoiding unnecessary packaging.

Reduce waste by:

• recycling all cardboard, paper, metal cans, glass bottles, and jars, and plastic bottles, jugs, tubs, and cups
• using drop-off recycling options
• composting food
• making less food waste
• repairing broken items
• keeping electronics longer before upgrading
• switching to reusable options instead of single-use throwaway options
• selling or giving away items that someone else could use

The city has a goal to reduce how much garbage each person in Kirkland tosses each week from 8 pounds to 5 pounds. How could you throw away 1, 2 or 3 pounds less a week?