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Food + Yard Waste Guidelines

You can compost food scraps and yard trimmings in your gray cart. Weekly compost service is included with your trash service. Businesses and multi-family properties that meet our qualifications can request a food scrap cart at no additional cost. Apartment and condo residents can also drop off food scraps at our community food scrap drop-off carts.

Composting food scraps is an easy way to reduce your household's climate impact and put your food waste to good use.

What can I put in my gray cart?

food scraps with compostable bag All compostable items should go in your gray food+yard cart. You can compost:

Food scraps (including meat, bones, shells and dairy)
Food-soiled paper like pizza boxes and paper napkins
Yard trimmings
Compostable bags (Cedar Grove approved)

See our compost brochure(PDF, 828KB) for photos. Request a hard copy by emailing us at recycle@kirklandwa.gov.

Please only compost items on our accepted list. When items go into the gray cart that don't break down, they wind up in the finished compost. Some pieces can be sifted out, but most are too small for the screens. That's why you sometimes see fruit stickers, plastic pieces, and bits of glass in compost.

Help Make Good Compost

3 Simple Steps to Start Composting Food

1. Compost all your food scraps from food preparation
2. Compost all your leftover uneaten food
3. Never put plastic in your gray cart

Request a Free Countertop Food Scrap Container

We are providing no-contact doorstep delivery of free countertop food scrap containers to residents during the pandemic. To request one, please email your address to recycle@kirklandwa.gov. Your container will be delivered within 2-3 weeks.

What Should NOT Go In Your Compost

NO plastic bags in your gray bin! Only use compostable bags like BioBags or paper bags. See accepted bags.
Absolutely NO pet waste or diapers. Throw away feces in the garbage.
No plastic, glass, or metal.
Products marked "compostable" that aren't on Cedar Grove's accepted list - see residential list and commercial list

Simply because an item is labeled compostable does not guarantee we accept it. There are many different systems for composting materials, and not all materials break down properly in every system.

Many compostable products accepted at businesses are not accepted in residential curbside carts. Cedar Grove found that too many people were confused by product labels and put in items that cannot be composted. "Biodegradable" and "natural" are not the same as compostable.

Food Scrap Composting for Businesses and Apartments

multifamily compost cart with compostable liner inside enclosure Food scrap collection service is available at no additional cost to qualifying businesses and apartments and condos. Property Managers and residents with approval from their Property Manager can request to add food scrap service.

Apartment and condo residents who don't have compost service at their property, and are unable or uninterested in starting it, can bring food scraps to our community food scrap drop-off locations.

Common Composting Questions

Why should I compost?

Compost to save money.

A 96-gallon food yard waste cart is included weekly with residential garbage service.
Businesses and apartments and condos can request no-cost food scrap collection service.
By putting food scraps, yard waste, and food-soiled paper in your gray cart, you generate less trash. With less trash, you can opt for a smaller (and cheaper) garbage service level.

Composting helps the climate.

Food in the landfill breaks down very slowly in a process that emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Landfills are the third largest source of human-related methane emissions in the US because of all the food and other organic materials that get thrown away. Methane is captured at King County's landfill but it is best to prevent methane production rather than harvest it.

Compost enriches soil.

The process of breaking down food and yard waste produces compost, a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Composting food and yard waste "closes the loop" so the nutrients in them can be returned to the soil.

Compost filters pollution.

Compost is used in stormwater projects to clean runoff to protect our lakes, rivers, and wetlands.
You can add a raingarden to capture and filter runoff in your yard!

Won't food scraps smell bad on my countertop?

Follow these tips to keep your countertop food scrap pail smelling fresh all year:

Empty it into your gray food yard cart multiple times a week
Use a compostable bag so you can toss the liner with all the food scraps and food-soiled paper into the gray cart
Wash your countertop food scrap container regularly
Sprinkle baking soda over food scraps or wrap them in newspaper to absorb odor and liquid
Consider storing your container in the refrigerator or even freezer, especially during hot summer months: food scraps stay drier and last longer

What happens to my food and yard waste?

All your food and yard waste goes to Cedar Grove composting facilities in Everett or Maple Valley, where it's turned into compost in a matter of weeks. The average household's food scraps and yard trimmings produce five yards of compost each year, according to Cedar Grove.

What about backyard composting?

Composting in your backyard is a great way to keep the nutrients from your yard trimmings in your own garden.

Types of Composting

There are three methods that people can use to recycle their organic waste:

Curbside Pickup: Placing your compostable materials in your gray cart and Waste Management will whisk them away each week to a facility for processing into compost

Backyard composting: Using a composting bin to collect your organic waste and composting it right in your backyard

Vermicomposting: Using a worm bin and worms to break down your food and yard waste into compost

How Backyard Composting Works

Create compost from a combination of "brown" and "green" materials, kept appropriately moist and turned at certain intervals.

brown materials are carbon rich, such as dead leaves, branches, or twigs
green materials are nitrogen rich, such as grass clippings, vegetable waste, and coffee grounds

If you want to compost food scraps, a worm bin may be a better choice.

Learn How to Compost in Your Backyard

Local non-profit Tilth Alliance offers plans for building a backyard composting system and worm composting system, and also offers classes teaching gardening skills like composting.

How else can I support the compost system?

Composting all your food scraps and yard waste is the first step. Use compost in your own yard to return nutrients to the soil, suppress weeds, and reduce watering needs.

Tips to Waste Less Food

The average family wastes 1/4 of the food they buy! Our 4-email course shares ways that your family can eat more of the food you buy, and waste less. Get tips delivered to your inbox about grocery shopping, food storage, sharing food, and more.

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