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Redmond staff report smooth Recology transition so far, note ~20% rate increase and service fixes
Summary
City staff told the council on June 16 that Recology took over January 1, 2026 service to Redmond and, despite a roughly 20% rate increase from Waste Management’s 2025 rates, has delivered stable service while the city and Recology address early issues such as early‑morning collections, cart replacements, and call‑center escalations.
City staff and Recology officials briefed the council on June 16 about the city’s transition from Waste Management to Recology for solid waste, recycling and composting service.
"Recology began servicing Redmond on January 1st, 2026," Jesse Dunbar, Redmond’s solid‑waste and recycling program administrator, told the council, noting the new contract covers single‑family, multi‑family and commercial accounts and includes a Recology store and community programs. Dunbar reported the overall diversion rate has increased nearly 4% since January.
Staff and Recology acknowledged a roughly 20% rate increase compared with Waste Management’s 2025 rates for the most common 32‑gallon cart, but said that was significantly lower than one bid during the competitive process that proposed a 100% increase. Aaron Mulver (Environmental Services Manager) said that, even after the rate increase, Redmond’s most common 32‑gallon service remains among the third‑lowest in King County for full weekly service of garbage, recycling and compost.
Officials described several early issues and how they were addressed or are being addressed: Recology reported pre‑7:00 a.m. residential collections in January (now corrected), the city and Recology established exception zones for early collections in primarily commercial corridors (Willows Road and parts of the Microsoft campus), and the city is monitoring cart‑replacement delays and call‑center escalation performance. Recology reported an average of 0.37 missed collections per 1,000 homes (about 94 misses per month by the reported calculation) with a January peak and improvement since.
Alyssa Campbell, Recology’s government and community relations manager, said the contract requires Recology to cover relabeling costs for containers and that the company aims to resolve escalated issues within 24 hours. Staff offered to set a regular cadence for reporting service metrics back to council and to continue close oversight as the first full contract year progresses.
