Ah, summer. The sun is shining, children are laughing as they play … and the putrid odor of hot garbage is in the air in some places.
If your trash is normally picked up by Republic Services in King and Snohomish counties, it might be piling up while workers are on strike demanding better wages, benefits and working conditions.
And with a heat wave carrying sizzling temperatures in the 90s, you might have a heap of hot garbage on your hands.
With hot garbage comes a sour stink, a risk of rats among other assorted horrors.
While the workers duke it out with Republic Services, trash has begun to spill onto the street, accompanied by foul odors, flies and rats, FOX 13 reported.
But things could “probably get a lot worse,” said Teamsters spokesperson Matt McQuaid.
Teamsters Local 252 in Lacey is scheduled to meet with Republic Services in two weeks on July 30 to negotiate their first contract, as King and Snohomish counties’ workers continue to strike in solidarity. But the company could end the strike any day, if they wanted, he added.
Republic Services is working with cities to schedule locations where residents can drop off their trash and using “other Republic Services employees” to do pickup for commercial customers like hospitals, care facilities, police and fire stations, the company said.
- In Bellevue, Republic Services customers can drop off garbage, compostables and recycling at the Odle Middle School parking lot between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Thursday, the company said.
- Kent residents in single-family homes can drop off garbage at ShoWare Center between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.
Hundreds of cars had passed through Thomas Teasdale Park in Renton between 7 a.m. and 12 p.m. Wednesday where residents were able to drop off their trash. A line snaked through residential areas.
Rats are attracted to clutter, said Kevin Peterson, operations manager for Cascade Pest Control. Reducing clutter means that “if the strike is something that’s prolonged beyond a week, one really needs to consider taking their trash to a transfer station or a collection center.”
(It’s been a week, by the way).
While you can choose to wait for Republic Services to resume its pickup at no additional cost once the work strike is over, you can also self-haul trash to a transfer station, said Veronica Houser, spokesperson for the King County Solid Waste Division.
Residents can drop off trash for a fee at transfer stations such as Bow Lake Recycling and Transfer Station in Tukwila, Factoria Recycling and Transfer Station in Bellevue and Snohomish County transfer stations in Everett and, Arlington and Mountlake Terrace.
If self-hauling is a no-go too, you’ll want to take precautions to keep the rats away.
Rats can smell trash particles in parts per billion, so double-bagging your waste isn’t going to cut it, Peterson said. Keep your trash in metal containers with a tight-fitting lid and your compost in a tight, enclosed composter that can rotate and reduce the amount of liquids inside.
But remember, rats can chew through plastic.
You can pull your garbage inside a garage if you have one, Peterson said. But be careful of that. This mitigation method only works if you don’t already have a rat problem inside, and the smell is going to eventually attract the rodents anyway.
Deterrents like cayenne pepper and pepper oils can be used as a deterrent, Peterson said, but “you probably have to apply them way more frequently than most folks realize in order for those to remain effective” because it doesn’t take rats long to find the gaps. They’re built to survive adverse situations.
If you choose to use rat poison and other rodent bait, use the product as directed on the label to minimize the risk of impacting other animals out there that aren’t the intended target, Peterson added.
