Leaves, Pine Needles, and Gutter Debris: Checking Spokane Disposal Options
Leaves and pine needles are accepted yard debris at every self-haul site in the Spokane area, and in the City of Spokane’s green cart. What decides the rate is not where the material came from but what is in the load with it. A load that also carries dirt, gravel, rocks, concrete, lumber, metal or plastic is charged as garbage, whether it came off a lawn or out of a gutter.
Two boundaries change the answer. The first is the address, because three collection arrangements and four self-haul sites sit behind a Spokane mailing address. The second is the item list, because that is the test an attendant applies at the gate.
This page is for the owner of a house they live in, clearing fallen leaves or emptying gutters and downspouts; cleaning methods and roof work are other subjects. The cleanup and disposal guide covers the full set of streams, the sites and their hours.
Quick route
| Your situation | Ask first | Have ready |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves that fell in the street in front of a City of Spokane address | The City’s street leaf program | Whether they fell there, or were raked out from the yard |
| A cartful of leaves at a City of Spokane address | Your green cart’s collection season | Whether everything in the cart is on the accepted list |
| More yard material than the cart takes | A self-haul site, asked for the clean-green rate | A load that meets the item list, covered against spillage |
| Gutter material mixed with grit, gravel or metal | The site attendant, before the vehicle is loaded | A way to separate the load in two |
| Leaves at an address outside the city | Your hauler, or the Valley’s contracted transfer station | The hauling company that serves the address |
Which of the routes takes your leaves
City of Spokane. The street program below runs only here. City addresses can also subscribe to the optional green cart, and the City’s Waste to Energy facility takes self-hauled yard debris at its own clean-green rate.
City of Spokane Valley. Curbside collection is optional and runs under a contract between the City and its collection contractor, which the City directs service questions to. Valley households self-haul recycling and Clean Green waste to the City’s contracted transfer station at 2405 N. University Road. The City’s solid waste division answers coverage questions on 509-720-5000.
Unincorporated Spokane County. A designated hauler serves each area and sets the cart, the day and the cost; the county’s recycling hotline on 509-477-6800 and its hauler jurisdiction map identify the company for an address. The county’s two transfer stations take yard and food waste under a rate category of their own, Clean Green and Yard Waste Debris.
If the arrangement that covers an address is not settled, the jurisdiction guide is the first stop.
The street program takes the leaves that fell in the street
The City of Spokane’s Street Maintenance Division removes fallen leaves from the streets to prevent hazardous conditions, and it states the service boundary plainly: the program “is intended only for leaves which fall naturally into the streets. Please do not place leaves from your yards into the street.” The City states that leaves which fall in a yard are the owner’s responsibility, and points that work to yard waste collection.
The season moves. The City states that the dates vary with when the majority of the leaves have dropped, that announcements are made when operations begin, and that the work then takes four to six weeks. The City asks residents to move their cars, which slow the crews.
One of the City’s three crew types is the pine-needle route: where leaf fall is light and mostly pine needles, two-person crews take up the small piles by hand. On heavier routes the leaves are pushed or scooped and carried to the Waste to Energy facility. A progress map is updated daily, and the City calls it the best source for which areas crews are working in.
Two limits belong to other pages: a pile or container standing in the public way is the public way’s question, covered by the exterior-service pillar, and leaves that reach a storm drain are a stormwater question, with the local programmes and their reporting lines on the pressure-washing page.
The item list is the test
The county publishes a one-page guide for yard and food waste at its transfer stations, and it is the clearest statement of the test: bark, weeds, twigs, pine needles, pine cones, grass clippings and leaves are compostable, as are limbs not more than six feet long and three inches in diameter and sod not more than three inches thick, with rocks and soil shaken off. The same guide lists what is not used for composting: animal feces, any type of garbage, concrete, dirt, gravel, rocks, liquids or grease, lumber, metal, plastic, paper, and stumps over ten inches in diameter.
The City’s list for its own facility carries the same limits, with rocks, dirt and animal feces excluded. So leaves and pine needles pass at every site; what fails is what arrives with them.
One tension inside the guide is worth knowing before the gate: paper is on the not-compostable list, while food-soiled paper is on the compostable one. Both are published as the county words them, and the attendant applies them.
Two rules decide what happens at the scale: mixed material types must be separated before disposal or the load is disposed of as garbage, and a load meant to be charged at both rates goes through the line twice. The cleanup and disposal guide carries both in full.
No figure is published here: the county and the City each set their own rate for clean-green yard debris, both live on the authorities’ rate notices, and the disposal-cost record holds the gate rates.
Gutter debris is not one material
Neither list mentions gutters, roof grit or downspout material. Both decide by item rather than by origin, and a gutter load is a mixed load by nature: it holds the leaves and needles the list accepts together with whatever else the roof and gutter shed. Anything on the excluded list makes it a garbage load unless the streams are separated first.
That settles the question this page exists for: no authority publishes a gutter-specific acceptance rule, so no page can promise a gutter load the clean-green rate, and the attendant at the gate applies the item list.
Separate the load before you leave: spread it, or tip it into a wheelbarrow, and put the yard material in one container and the grit, gravel and metal in another. Ask at the gate rather than the scale, because the scale is where the rate is applied. And keep a warning-labelled product out of the pile: the City states that any item used in the home that has a warning on the label probably is a household hazardous waste.
Nothing here is an instruction for working on a roof or a ladder. Ground-level checks are the safe ones, and anything above them belongs to a professional.
What is not an option
Burning is the route to close first, because most addresses cannot use it. The Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency states that burning garbage is prohibited throughout Washington and that burn barrels are banned statewide. For yard and garden debris — leaves, needles, small tree and shrub prunings from ground that is watered and mowed — the agency states that burning “is not allowed for most residents of Spokane County”. No burning is allowed in cities, towns or urban growth areas, and the exception is confined to addresses inside Fire Districts 2, 5, 11 or 12, by permit from the district.
The agency points to the alternatives instead: composting and mulching, curbside collection where it exists, and a self-haul trip to a transfer station at the reduced clean-green fee.
Composting and mulching at home
Home composting is the alternative the county’s own resources page covers. It states that fallen leaves, grass clippings, weeds and garden remains make excellent compost and that woody yard waste can be chipped or shredded for mulching, and it cautions that meat, bones, dairy products and fatty foods belong in the garbage or a Clean Green programme rather than in a backyard pile. The City’s composting page sends readers to the county for the method.
A routing sheet for one cleanup
| The material | Where it goes | The rule that decides |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves, pine needles, twigs, pine cones, clean grass and weeds | Clean Green yard debris — the green cart, or a self-haul site | On the accepted list, with rocks and soil shaken off |
| Leaves that fell in the street at a City of Spokane address | The City’s street leaf program | Only leaves that fell there, never a raked pile |
| A cartful at a City of Spokane address after November | The green cart’s winter months, or a self-haul trip | Weekly collection runs March to November |
| Gutter material, or any load mixed with grit, gravel, dirt or metal | Separated material, or charged as garbage | The excluded items on the authority’s own list |
| Anything in a container that carries a warning label | The household hazardous waste drop-off | The City’s warning-label test |
| A pile you intended to burn | Compost it, cart it, or haul it | No burning in cities, towns or urban growth areas |
Next step
Before the bags are filled, write three lines: the arrangement that covers the address, the route the leaves will take, and the route the gutter material will take. The first line decides the other two. Settle it with the jurisdiction guide if the address’s status is unclear.
Report an error or a change you have spotted: use our contact page.