Customers who use King County’s Enumclaw Recycling and Transfer Station will soon be able to access the facility seven days a week.

Beginning May 1, the recycling and transfer station will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. The facility is currently closed to the public on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“Employees working at the Enumclaw station on days when the facility was closed to the public say they have had to turn away customers who were coming to use the station,” said Pat McLaughlin, King County Solid Waste Division Director. “We appreciate the support of the Metropolitan King County Council which approved budget sufficient to provide this enhanced service to residents and businesses in southeast King County.”

“This increase in operating hours will make recycling and solid waste disposal more convenient for my district’s growing population,” said King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn.

Public feedback received by the County’s Solid Waste Division during a 30-day comment period was unanimously supportive of the extended hours.

Located at 1650 Battersby Ave. E., the station serves residents and businesses largely from the Enumclaw, Black Diamond and Maple Valley areas.

In addition to accepting garbage, the station also accepts a wide variety of materials for recycling – and opening two additional days per week enhances customer access to the numerous recycling opportunities at the station, including:

· Appliances,

· Cardboard,

· Comingled recyclables (paper, cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic containers),

· Fluorescent bulbs and tubes,

· Scrap metal,

· Textiles,

· Clean wood (untreated/unpainted/unstained), and

· Yard waste.

King County residents and businesses recycle 54 percent of all solid waste generated, yet 70 percent of what is landfilled could have been reused, recycled, or composted.

The King County Solid Waste Division handled 25,560 tons of separated recyclable and compostable materials at its facilities in 2016, exceeding its goal of 24,000 tons.