WEST SEATTLE SNOW AFTERMATH: Trash, recycling pickup has resumed. Here’s the latest plan

9:24 AM: Just seen in Gatewood: A Waste Management truck. Several commenters in our morning report also mentioned their pickups had happened already, from North Delridge to Fauntleroy. To recap, here’s what the city has said since last night:

Solid waste crews plan to collect garbage from Monday and Tuesday customers (today), February 13th. Crews also plan to collect recycling from Monday customers in Northwest and Southwest Seattle (today). Customers missed last week may put out additional waste at no additional charge.

Collecting garbage from Monday customers whose waste was not picked up the last two Mondays is the priority. Therefore, recycling and food & yard waste not collected from Monday and Tuesday customers (today) will be collected next week, on February 18th and 19th. Customers may put out double the usual amount of recycling and food & yard waste at no additional charge.

All garbage, recycling, and food/yard waste will be collected for Wednesday customers on Thursday, Feb. 14

All garbage, recycling, and food/yard waste will be collected for Thursday customers on Friday, Feb. 15

All garbage, recycling, and food/yard waste will be collected for Friday customers on Saturday, Feb. 16

(For the above three, too) If your collection was missed last week, you may put out double the usual amount of recycling and food/yard waste at no additional charge.

…Additionally, Seattle residents significantly impacted by delayed pickups, due to icy residential streets, may visit the transfer stations for free February 13-16th. Customers are asked to indicate they are Seattle residents whose solid waste services have been delayed due to weather for more than a week.

There are some caveats on those free transfer-station visits – go here for the latest on that.

Meanwhile, Seattle Public Utilities (for whom Waste Management picks up residential solid waste) will be part of another 11 am mayor-and-department-heads briefing today, and we’ll add any new info that results. You can watch for the live stream here.

4:35 PM: Here’s the latest. We’ll update later this evening.

7:26 PM: Just in from SPU via Twitter:

Our trucks had significant challenges getting to all Monday and Tuesday areas today, even with chains and extra crews. If you are a Mon/Tues customer and your garbage was not collected today, it will be collected next week.

Customers whose collection was missed may also bring their garbage, recycling, and food/yard waste to our north or south transfer stations for free. More info here: https://atyourservice.seattle.gov/2019/02/06/solid-waste-collection-resumes-feb-6/ … We know this can be frustrating. Thank you for your continued patience.

34 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE SNOW AFTERMATH: Trash, recycling pickup has resumed. Here's the latest plan"

  • John Q Lincoln February 13, 2019 (11:04 am)

    Hopefully mail service resumes as well.    

    • Tracey February 13, 2019 (12:08 pm)

      I have received mail everyday in Sunrise Heights.  Are mail carriers skipping homes whose mail boxes can’t be accessed safely (slippery steps, etc)  or are there route specific problems?  

  • rpo February 13, 2019 (11:34 am)

    If I am understanding this correctly, if recycling was supposed to be picked up on Monday the 4th, it won’t get picked up today but will on Monday the 18th?

    • WSB February 13, 2019 (11:43 am)

      My reading is that they’re trying to catch up with those who were missed last week, on all fronts. But I’ll check with SPU to see if they can clarify. Meantime, at the briefing (which isn’t quite over yet), SPU’s Mami Hara pretty much reiterated what’s already been said, and that (barring any further weather surprises!) they expect to be back on regular schedule by next week. – TR

  • Thomas L Bucy February 13, 2019 (11:56 am)

    Just talked to a driver at 45th and Alaska.  He is not picking up in alleys near the junction, only on the main streets.  Too hard to maneuver in alleys 

    • Westgirl February 13, 2019 (1:10 pm)

      Nooooooo!!! 😫

    • Luvsseattle February 14, 2019 (7:34 am)

      I can report that recycling came through at least a couple alleys between California and 42nd around 230pm yesterday. 

  • Alki resident February 13, 2019 (12:04 pm)

    Hello – I don’t know if this has been mentioned before I have found Seattle Public Utilities mobile app helpful.  It has reminders and some schedule change alerts.
    https://www.seattle.gov/util/MyServices/Recycling/RecycleItApp/index.htm

    • Jon Wright February 13, 2019 (1:39 pm)

      Alki Resident, thank you very much for sharing the link for that app…good stuff!As a data point, recycling and garbage were both picked up from our house a couple blocks west of the Alaska Junction before 11:00. I talked to the garbage driver a bit, too, and it sounded like there were going to be alleys that get skipped. The communication around compost and yard waste was confusing. The gist of that seemed to be they weren’t picking up Monday customers’ green bins so I didn’t bother putting mine out. Mercifully since I haven’t done any yard work recently I can wait on that one a bit longer.

  • just wondering February 13, 2019 (12:06 pm)

    Just had my recycling picked up!  Our containers are out on the street.

    • WSB February 13, 2019 (12:20 pm)

      While out and about for a while last hour, we saw trucks from Arbor Heights to Alki. Definitely out in force.

  • HelperMonkey February 13, 2019 (12:32 pm)

    Damn shame I couldn’t get my garbage can up the steep, icy driveway. Glad they’re back out, though. Would be nice to see mail service as well. Arbor Heights hasn’t seen mail delivery since Friday. 

  • Bob Hull February 13, 2019 (2:46 pm)

    Not to nitpick, but Monday pickup of yard waste will be behind by three (3) weeks when they finally pick it up on February 18, 2019.  SPU says we can put out double at no cost, but it should  be 3X the amount. I should get to put out 3 cans on Feb 18, 2019. I’ve had 2 cans waiting since Feb 4.

  • Yma February 13, 2019 (3:05 pm)

    So I interpreted that – today would start with Monday pick up, & then move on through the weekend for catch-up. In any event – I shoveled a path & got everything to the curbside. Hoping they can pick up; understand if they can’t- but need a date.

  • Gina February 13, 2019 (4:43 pm)

    Trash picked up from alley between 45th and 46th /Admiral Lander today. I have a wastebasket sized trash can so was glad to have it emptied!

  • rpo February 13, 2019 (5:14 pm)

    No pick up yet today in North Admiral. I was walking/driving around earlier this afternoon and honestly never saw a garbage truck. They’ve gotta be so far behind they might be picking up into the evening.

    • WSB February 13, 2019 (5:34 pm)

      We have just been around a ways and saw one west of Morgan Junction. So they are still out.

    • LoveTheSnow February 13, 2019 (6:42 pm)

      Hi, I’m on Hanford and 37th, garbage was collected at 7:30am this morning on my side of the street. At 12:30pm, my across the street neighbor’s were collected. Not for recycling or yard waste yet as of 6:41pm.  And USPS mail was delivered this week, Monday, Tuesday and today. He handed me my mail directly, except for yesterday, when he told me we had no mail. The mailman said some homes with questionable amounts of snow were skipped.  

  • carole February 13, 2019 (5:17 pm)

    Our trash is in the alley one block west of California, north of Charleston.  Nothing was picked up today: dumpster, food waste (now overflowing and we get to wait almost ANOTHER WEEK?) recycle bins.  We are a multi unit building. Sure, we can put out more plastic bags of dumpster trash, but there is nowhere to put food waste without scavengers getting into it.  There are clear, bare wide tracks in the alley fine to navigate.  Cars have been going through there all day.

    • Admiral Dad February 13, 2019 (5:56 pm)

      I am with Carole, we are the 2nd block east of WSHS on 38th and our alley is easily navigated.  We have a small household garbage bin which is not going hold another week’s worth of garbage, not to mention the overflowing recycle bin next to it.  I don’t particular want to bring the bag of garbage I added to the top of the stack back into my garage for another week.

  • Utility payer February 13, 2019 (6:19 pm)

    Should I keep my trash out and assume Waste Management will pick it up tomorrow?

    • WSB February 13, 2019 (6:35 pm)

      There is no official update yet. However, that’s what we plan to do, FWIW.

  • alex February 13, 2019 (6:30 pm)

    So if we haven’t had pickup for 3 weeks (never made it today, pickup will be next Monday) we should be allowed to put up 3x the amount, not 2x as SPU stated? Are they going to give us some flexibility here? 

  • Jk February 13, 2019 (6:42 pm)

    Monday service customer on 50th between Charleston and Spokane, not picked up today. It has now been 16 days and counting since garbage has been collected because of the flawed decision to just skip Monday customers last week.This is ridiculous. 

    • junctioneer February 13, 2019 (7:23 pm)

      Monday service never picked up in Met Market area either. I wonder if it’ll be tomorrow or next Monday.

  • WSB February 13, 2019 (7:28 pm)

    Update just in from SPU, added above and will also be added in an evening roundup I’m working on: “Our trucks had significant challenges getting to all Monday and Tuesday areas today, even with chains and extra crews. If you are a Mon/Tues customer and your garbage was not collected today, it will be collected next week.”

    • BC February 13, 2019 (7:57 pm)

      What happened to prioritizing Monday customers missed last week when service resumed? We’re now going 3 weeks between pickups? And Monday is a holiday where some of us will be out of town and miss again. I’ve already had to rebag all the extras after birds tore through it today.

  • NorskGirl February 13, 2019 (7:45 pm)

    Live in Genesee Hills area.  Haven’t received mail for 6 days.

  • WS Folks February 13, 2019 (8:00 pm)

    Ok, I will admit to sounding carmudgeon-ly here, but when did we go soft in the belly on timely mail delivery and garbage collection?  Is it government fear of being sued for any weather related accidents or injuries?  Or what?  In recent decades when we’ve had equally severe weather here in West Seattle, our mail delivery was never missed for nearly a week, and it was rare to experience such delays in garbage collection.  On a positive note we really appreciate the neighborhood snowplow efforts!

  • Wsres February 13, 2019 (9:50 pm)

    Ours was not picked up today. We are a Monday pickup and our street got missed again. 46th and Alaska are the closest cross streets. 

  • Snow February 13, 2019 (9:56 pm)

    Only our recycling got picked up. We are a Monday collection day. The birds keep pecking through my extra trash bags which I have had to re-bag twice. And we haven’t gotten mail for a week. The roads are not that bad for a giant, heavy  truck! 

  • Lola February 14, 2019 (6:28 am)

    So my husband has faithfully shoveled a path to our front door where the mailbox is, even shoveled the driveway and down on the sidewalk all the way to the end of the block.  The other day our regular mailman made it to the mailbox just fine.  The replacement mailman the other day decides to skip us for unknown reason’s, my husband watched him do a few of the houses across the street with flat walkways.  A former mailman friend said yes they can pick and choose which houses to deliver to when there is a hazzard such as snow, and most of the non regular mailmen choose to skip houses even if they are passable. 

Sorry, comment time is over.