Organics management for local governments

Visit the Organics Recycling Collection Areas map.

To create this map, we use data from the Office of Financial Management’s annual population estimates and Small Area Estimates Program as well as census tract data from the US Census Bureau. This map is updated every year by September.

To learn more about the ORCA requirements and how to use the ORCA map, check out this tutorial video:

Organics collection requirements for 2027

By April 1, 2027, local governments in an ORCA must have year-round organics collection service provided in their jurisdiction. Year-round is defined as 26 weeks or more of service, annually.

Service must be: 
•    Source-separated, so food and yard waste are placed in a separate container from other recyclables and trash.
•    Provided to all single-family residents. 
•    Provided to business customers that generate more than 0.25 cubic yards (approximately 45 gallons) of organic waste per week. This does not include multifamily units where residents share collection containers.

Cities impacted by ORCA are also required to establish a compost procurement ordinance (CPO) and an associated annual report. A CPO is a plan to purchase and use local compost in public projects.

Organics collection requirements for 2030

By April 1, 2030, organics collection services provided in the ORCAs become non-elective for customers. All single-family homes and businesses generating 0.25 cubic yards of organic waste per week must have mandatory service provided. Additionally, the local government’s collection service must accept food waste and collect organic waste separately from garbage and recycling.

Extensions and exemptions

The waiver application period for the 2027 ORCA requirements is now open. 

Jurisdictions that implement a solid waste management plan can apply for a waiver. This can be a county or a city. We recommend the impacted county and cities work together to submit a joint application.  

For the 2027 requirements, applicants can submit a waiver application in February 2026 through the end of December 2026. 

For the 2030 requirements, applicants can submit a waiver application in early 2029 through the end of 2029. The waiver application period for the 2030 requirements is not open at this time.  

ORCA service waiver  

Jurisdiction that are subject to the ORCA requirements may apply for a renewable sevice waiver if they can show they are unable to arrange residential organics collection by the legislative deadline. Jurisdictions can apply with one or more of the following criteria: 

• The distance to transport organic materials to an organic management facility is too far. 
• The organics materials management facility, transfer station, or reload facility that transports material to an organics management facility is at capacity. 
• Organics collection is economically infeasible to provide and too expensive for ratepayers.  
• The transport of organics materials is restricted due to apple-maggot quarantine boundaries. 

Submit a service waiver application by email. 

Please complete the application and provide supplemental supporting evidence via email to organics@ecy.wa.gov.  

Refer to our service waiver guidance for further details, instructions, and frequently asked questions on the waiver process. Consider this document your instruction manual for navigating the waiver application and overall process. 

ORCA frequency waiver 

If your jurisdiction plans to meet the ORCA requirements by the legislative timeline but with an alternative organics collection system, your jurisdiction can apply for a frequency waiver.  This alternative approach must meet the ORCA requirements and reduce the odor, volume, or both, of the collected organics material. A frequency waiver will reduce the total collection requirements to less than 26 weeks per year.   

Submit a frequency waiver by email.

Please complete the application and submit it via email to organics@ecy.wa.ecy.gov. 

Refer to our frequency waiver guidance for further details, instructions, and frequently asked questions on the waiver process. Consider this document your “instruction manual” for navigating the waiver application and overall process. 

Local exemptions for individual customers 

A resident may be exempt from organics collection service if they manage organic material in an equal or better environmental way. This only applies to individual customers who have other curbside solid waste services, like garbage and recycling. Those who don’t are considered unaffected customers, and would not be impacted by the organics service requirements and do not need to go through an individual exemption process.  

We are currently developing guidelines on individual exemptions for jurisdictions, who will be responsible for administering exemptions for customers within their service areas. This will be available for local governments in 2026. 

Implementation 

As jurisdictions plan to meet the ORCA requirements, there are several options to explore to provide organics service for residential and nonresidential customers. Refer to our ORCA implementation guidance to see Ecology’s recommendations. For questions on the implementation of the organics management laws in your jurisdiction or its impact to local solid waste management plans, contact organics@ecy.wa.gov  or your Ecology region’s lead local government planner.

Sign up for Organics Management updates

1.    Visit Ecology’s GovDelivery subscription webpage
2.    Enter your email address
3.    Navigate to "Solid Waste Management Program”
4.    Select “ECY-ORGANICS-MGMT”