Solid Waste Disposal and Recycling

About this indicator: Solid waste (garbage) disposal and recycling rates are significant indicators of resource consumption levels by King County residents and businesses. When a product has reached the end of its useful life and must be discarded, it must usually either be disposed of at the King County landfill or taken to a recycling facility for transformation into another product. Every product made from recycled materials reduces the need for extraction of additional natural resources, which uses much more energy and results in higher greenhouse gas emissions than using recycled materials. King County's solid waste goals call for ongoing reductions in the amount of materials disposed at the landfill per person and per employee, and ongoing increases in the percentage of discarded materials that are recycled.

Status: Performance measures reported in the Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP) KingStat web site include 2010 targets for single-family recycling (55%) and solid waste disposal levels (25 pounds per household per week). The 2010 results were somewhat short of these targets, with the single-family recycling rate remaining at the 2009 level of 54%, and the single-family disposal level at the 2009 level of 26 pounds per week. Overall solid waste disposal continued the decline that began in 2008. The KingStat web site also sets targets for 2009 and 2010 for solid waste disposal per employee of 23.5 pounds per week. In 2010, garbage disposal per employee was below the target at 19.9 pounds per week.

Influencing factors: Economic conditions have a significant influence on consumption levels and therefore solid waste disposal levels. The continued economic downturn in 2010 reduced the amount of consumption, and therefore the amount of solid waste disposed and recycled. However, most of the reductions occurred in the commercial sector. Residential recycling and disposal rates remained close to or at 2009 levels.

DNRP response: As of December 2010, 97% of single-family garbage customers had food waste collection services available. In addition, in 2010, the Division's "Recycle More. It's Easy to Do." campaign included print, broadcast, and online ads resulting in over 127,000 media impressions; media events, including the "Lighten Your Load Media Challenge" and the "Pumpkin Smash" with Q13 TV; and retail partnerships with Round Table Pizza that promoted food and food-soiled paper recycling and with Bartell Drugs that provided discounts for compostable bags and countertop food waste containers.

The campaign also conducted outreach and education to residents of seven cities with recycling rates under 35%, including the cities of Snoqualmie, Kent, SeaTac, Renton, Tukwila, Kenmore and Federal Way. Outreach and education activities included providing recycling information at community events, such as the SeaTac International Festival; writing articles for community newspapers; and taking advantage of other unique educational opportunities, such as featuring the "Recycling Royalty" educational characters on Kent TV.

Priority new actions: These and other efforts will continue in 2011. In addition, the "Recycle More. It's Easy to Do." campaign will have a new focus on conducting recycling education and outreach to the county's Spanish-speaking community. The reasoning for this is that Hispanic residents represent 15.2 percent of the total population and are the fastest growing segment of the population of any race in King County. Other than English, Spanish is the most frequently spoken language in the county.

Percent of Single Family Household Solid Waste Recycled
2010 Information
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Pounds of Solid Waste Collected per Single Family Household per Week by Collection Area
2010 Information
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What you can do: Learn more about what you can do to reduce waste and increase recycling through the following resources.

• Garbage and recycling services
• Food waste and recycling
• Yard waste
• Electronics recycling
• Fluorescent bulb recycling
• Appliance recycling
• Textile recycling
• Recycling collection events
• Household hazardous waste collection
• the Wastemobile
• Construction recycling
• Recycling other materials/items
• On-line materials exchange
• Green building
• Eco-consumer tips