Community Post

Don’t put those trash cans out tonight

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There’s a revolution happening in the waste management world this week.  New collection days!  More recycling options!  So if you’re like me and are trained to put your cans out on the curb on Tuesday nights for Wednesday pickup, you’ve got some retraining to do.

According to our informal survey, if you live south of Union, your new collection day is Friday.  Those of you north of Union, including the bucolic Madison Valley, have a new collection day on Thursday.  Refer to Seattle Public Utility’s handy website for the exact day for your address.

Here’s the other groundbreaking changes you’ll experience:

  • Yard waste will now be picked up every week
  • Recycling is still every other week
  • No more recycling separation.  Glass now goes in with the rest of your paper and plastic recycling (I guess I’m bad – been doing this for years)
  • Got food scraps?  It’s no longer trash.  Put it in your yard waste cart instead.

Not sure what goes where?  Check out this flyer, or this list of videos for help.

0 thoughts on “Don’t put those trash cans out tonight”

  1. Real rodents, that is, assuming that mice, squirrels and rats are indeed all rodents (hey, I’m a MICRObiologist).

    Anyway, little critters, I’m sure you’ll be noticing all the yummy food scraps that the large naked bipeds will be storing next to their nests. The yummies will be in inedible plastic bins, but it will be well worth the effort to gnaw through the bins to get at the food within.

    The bipeds have been advised by their leaders to store the food scraps in their fridges till collection day, but I doubt that many of them will do that.

  2. I recycled our new trash/recycling flyer. For those of us in Mad Val/north of Union, is recycling this week or next?

  3. You can buy compost containers with charcoal filters, but I’ve also found any sealed container works to keep smell minimal. If you’d like to take advantage of the lovely compost for your own garden, worm bins are a great way to quickly convert food scraps into rich garden material. Worms are vegetarians, so you will want to keep meat scraps in the fridge and toss them out on collection day.

  5. I’ll never, ever be willing to put food scraps in my refrigerator.

    And if we haven’t previously had problems with rodents getting into the normal garbage can, why would the yard waste can be any different?

  6. We’ve never had a problem with rodents getting into our trash, yard waste or recycling. Do you guys just not put the lids on right?

  7. The worm bins sound somewhat fussy. Two green cones are a low-maintenance alternative. You deposit vegetable scraps into one for a year, let it lie fallow for a year, then open it up to remove about a wheelbarrow full of lovely dark soil (and a few worms).
    ( http://www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Yard/Natural_Lawn_&_Garden_Care/BuyCompostBinsRainBarrels/)

    But they do absolutely nothing to “biodegradable” plastic bags:
    http://millerparkseattle.blogspot.com/2008/10/biodegradable-

  8. We must have particularly delicious food scraps as something ate through our yard waste container last summer, near the top for some reason. They seemed to enjoy the buffet provided to them. That and the spectacular and persistent infestation of fruit flies made for not an enjoyable food scrap recycling experience.

  9. Some of our friends in other cities that already have composting put their scraps in the freezer – it’s more out of site and even less likely to be stinky.