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The Mountlake Terrace City Council at its March 19 meeting heard an annual report from Waste Management, which has a solid waste contract with the City. Public Sector Manager Kevin Kelly and Education and Outreach Coordinator Grace Fletcher highlighted customer service communication improvements, new garbage truck technology and billing issues.
Kelly said the major change in service in 2025 was a garbage collection reroute, during which Waste Management “missed a really critical step” by failing to properly communicate the change with the City and its residents.
“To the residents who were frustrated by that process, I apologize,” he said. “We should have done better. We should have done more to communicate during that period to make it clear what was happening and why.”
On the flip side, Kelly said Waste Management made a plan to maintain a single-day service on Wednesdays to be compliant with the contract. “In other words, we wouldn’t go to another community, collect a partial load and go to a transfer station, eject that load, and then come into the community and start serving it,” he said.
Kelly added that in the last three months, Waste Management has reduced its missed collections by 30%.
In response to Councilmember William Paige, Jr.’s question about extra-service coupons not being recognized, Kelly described how Waste Management’s truck and camera technology might be used to automatically detect extra container units and waive the first four charges instead.
Kelly told My MLT News that Waste Management mails five coupons annually to each residential address in Mountlake Terrace. This allows residents to put out one extra bag of garbage on any regular pickup day throughout the year at no extra cost.
“For many of our customers, there are a few times each year when they have too much garbage for their carts,” Kelly said. “This can happen when customers are spring cleaning, have holiday guests and are tackling household projects.”
The coupons also give residents the flexibility when they have extra garbage, he added. “It helps discourage cart overloading.”
“We would set up a rule in our billing system that says a customer has placed an extra [bin] out,” Kelly said in the meeting. “It’s been identified as such with our truck technology…[Customers] will get a notification letter saying we collected an extra unit of garbage, and you were not charged.”
Kelly said that some residents were being charged for service while on vacation when they put no bins out because they didn’t know they had to contact Waste Management to request a service hold. “We can work to communicate that more broadly,” he said, and indicated that customers can better manage holds via the My WM app.
Councilmember Erin Murray talked about Waste Management’s repeated communication failures in the last several years. Kelly acknowledged that problem and said Waste Management has an “obligation” to meet communication expectations. While the company sends out newsletters and social media posts, makes phone calls and updates its website, he said sometimes the messages “didn’t get through.”
“When we understand that we have made a mistake, we need to own it…and that is what we’re working to do,” Kelly said.
Fletcher talked about Waste Management’s Cascade Recycling Center (CRC) in Woodinville, which handles about 520 tons of residential and 50 tons of commercial recyclables from about 250,000 households.
Fletcher said that the CRC was rebuilt in 2023 and had multiple optical sorters installed that can identify up to 16 items per second on a conveyor belt and use targeted air jets to separate materials. She invited community members – including the Council – to in‑person and virtual tours of the facility.
Mountlake Terrace Environmental Programs Manager Patrick Hutchins said during the meeting that residents should not wash their garbage and recycling containers in the street or at storm drains because that would be an illicit discharge into the stormwater system. He suggested washing them on a lawn or similar terrain.
“Something I’ve done in the past with compost is [with] an electric tea kettle, and that hot water really helps break that stuff up, and you can dump it into the grass. It’ll actually act as fertilizer,” Hutchins said.
Hutchins said he is working with Waste Management to expand their social media presence beyond Facebook and use a shared tracking sheet that he and the utility billing staff can update. Hutchins said that he and Kelly will meet monthly for billing and communication updates.
Councilmember Sam Doyle said she worked in a recycling sorting job as an optic sorter when she was in college. “[It] was much slower than what you have now, but it was actually fascinating to be a part of that,” she said.
Murray said that when she was growing up, there was an emphasis in schools about recycling, but as a parent, she doesn’t see her own kids hearing as much about these topics at school. She suggested that this can affect kids’ understanding and behaviors about waste and recycling.
Mayor Steve Woodard thanked the Waste Management drivers, whom he greets with a peace sign when they come to his home to collect garbage. “I would like to have a decent relationship with my driver,” he said, adding that he and the Council would like to visit the recycling center.
For more information, visit Waste Management’s Mountlake Terrace website.
Proclamations
The Council issued proclamations for the Persian New Year Nowruz and Holy Week. According to the proclamation, Nowruz is a 3,000-year-old tradition rooted in Zoroastrianism that marks the Spring Equinox and symbolizes spiritual renewal.
Paige presented the proclamation to Mountlake Terrace resident Ann O’Keefe, who is a member of the Baháʼí Faith community.
“Thank you for acknowledging our place in the world and our values in celebrating Nowruz,” O’Keefe said.
Meanwhile, Pastor Heidi Fish of Bethesda Lutheran Church accepted the proclamation of Holy Week, which is the Christian observance commemorating the final days of Jesus Christ’s life leading up to Easter.
“Holy Week is celebrated by Christians around the world in many denominations, including Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, Episcopal and non-denominational churches,” Fish said. “In history, sometimes Holy Week has been a time of division, where we have fought against one another. Holy Week is supposed to be a time of self-sacrifice and connection, a time when we come together and serve the world.”
The full meeting can be viewed on the City’s YouTube channel.
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