Waste Management Leaves Woodinville, Moves its Northwest Regional Office to Kirkland

Waste Management Inc., which contracts with Kirkland to provide garbage and recycling collection, has moved its Northwest regional offices and 100 employees to a location at 4th Avenue downtown.

The company, which last spring negotiated a new seven-year contract with the city, decided Kirkland was a better fit than its former location in Woodinville.

“It really made sense to be in Kirkland,” said Robin Freedman, company spokeswoman. “It’s a great community and we are really aligned as a partner with Kirkland.”

Billing, sales, communications and administrative employees are based in the new offices at 720 4th Ave., near the .

A ribbon-cutting ceremony had been planned for Sept. 29, but has been postponed because construction work at or near the site will be going on then, Freedman said. It will be rescheduled.

Dean Kattler, a Kirkland resident and Waste Management area vice president, said in a statement: “The city of Kirkland is an important customer for Waste Management and our goals are completely aligned. In partnership with the city of Kirkland, we have worked very hard to achieve aggressive, world-class sustainability goals that make Kirkland a great place to live and work.”

The company’s new contract with Kirkland includes collection services to some 31,000 new residents in northern neighborhoods annexed on June 1, as well as restored garbage collection at 22 parks and 46 new high-tech trash compactors and recycling receptacles downtown. The contract also gives Waste Management a 9.7 increase from the city, and could mean a 3 percent rate increase for residents on Jan. 1, depending on how the City Council sets rates some time this fall.