Seattle will stick with weekly garbage pick up

Seattle will not go to every-other-week garbage pick up. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is asking the city council and the solid waste utility to scrap the idea.

The mayor said he evaluated a pilot program that tested every-other-week pick up in four neighborhoods. In a letter to the city council and Seattle Public Utilities, Murray said he concluded that the new policy would create a hardship on some customers, particularly in the city’s lower income and more diverse neighborhoods.

The mayor also concluded that the savings would not justify the reduction in service. City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw agreed.

“While every-other-week service would reduce garbage service by half, it would not reduce residential bills by half,” she wrote in a news release.

The original proposal projected a savings for the city of $6 million a year with the benefit of less truck traffic.

The mayor also concluded that the city can make progress toward it’s 60 percent recycling goal without reducing garbage pick up.

A customer review panel also recommended against the change in garbage pick up to every-other-week.