Metal
What you can recycle depends on whether you’re recycling at your house or apartment or at a Recycling and Disposal Station. Please see the information below for details.
OK in home recycling or at Transfer Station
OK only at Transfer Station
NOT accepted in home recycling or at Transfer Stations
OK in home recycling or at Transfer Station
- Aluminum foil, pans or trays
- Aluminum beverage cans, such as beer and pop. Please empty. Labels are OK.
- Steel or tin cans - Rinse, leave lids attached, pushed down inside can. (Throw away loose lids. It is not necessary to remove labels.)
- Metal hangers
- Scrap metal (less than 2 ft. x 2 ft. x 2 ft.)
- Cookware (pots, pans, cookie sheets, etc.) made of ferrous metal (remove any non-metal parts
OK only at Transfer Station
- Appliances - for a fee
- Bicycles
- Empty barrels or drums - Clean and cut them in half. Not accepted if they have been used for hazardous materials.
- Hot water heaters – remove all interior and exterior insulation. (Appliance rate charged for heaters with insulation.)
- Lawn mowers - drain gas and oil
- Scrap metal - copper, wire hangers, cast iron, etc.
- Steel garbage cans
- Vehicle batteries
NOT accepted in home recycling or at Transfer Stations
- Items smaller than 3" are too small to be recycled: they can jam the machinery at the recycling plant.
- Household batteries - Alkaline batteries (AA, C, D, 9v, etc.) go in garbage. But vehicle batteries are accepted for recycling at the Transfer Station.
- Rechargeable batteries are not accepted by SPU; see Rechargable Battery Recycling Corporation for recycling locations.
- Asbestos
- Bottle caps
- Can lids smaller than 3 inches (unless attached to can)
- Cans with liquid or food left inside.
- Chip bags
- Engines or auto parts
- Metal with other materials attached
- Office or copy machines
- Oil tanks
- Propane tanks or containers of other pressurized flammable gases
- Drums that contained hazardous waste
- Wrapped pipe (pipe that is unwrapped and made of ferrous material is accepted at the Transfer Station)
Related links
Links to other sites
Resource Venture
King County Reuse and Recycling Database
Take it Back Network — for cell phones, stereos, VCRs, printers
E-Cycle Washington - for computers, monitors, and TVs