Common Containers at Your Building
In Seattle, all homes, buildings, and businesses must dispose of recyclables, food waste, and garbage in separate containers. Buildings may have chutes on each floor, containers at the parking lot or garage, or a combination of chutes and containers.
Make sure you know where to dispose of recyclables, food waste, and garbage at your building. If you aren't sure, ask the property manager about it. If you believe your building doesn't have a container to collect recyclables or food waste and your property manager is unable to help, you can use this form to request containers.
Remember, food waste, yard waste, and recyclable are not allowed in the garbage (SMC 21.36.082-083). If you have questions about what belongs in each container, check out our Where Does It Go? tool.
You can help improve your building's sorting by:
- Making sure each container has a large labeling sticker, a sorting poster nearby, and that the containers are color-coded (food waste is green, recycle is blue, and garbage is gray).
- If these stickers and posters are not there, let your management know that they can order free signage.
- If you see waste issues at your building (for example, that a compostable bag wasn't installed in your food waste cart), let your management know about it and point them to our troubleshooting resources.
Still Having Issues?
If your building still has challenges sorting waste, management, staff, or residents can contact us at AskEvelyn@seattle.gov or by leaving a voice message at (206) 684-8717. We visit buildings to review the waste system and provide tools such as food scrap containers.