The (sort of) hidden Seattle garbage fees adding to your utility bill

When's the last time you checked the third page of your garbage bill?

Been a while? Maybe take a look.

Page 3, the last page, is where Seattle Public Utilities lists its fees for extra garbage," charges in increments of $13.95 that SPU assesses for an extra bag, a bin that's not fully closed or, if you ask some customers, for no reason at all.

Citywide, SPU charges about 300,000 "extra garbage" fees each year, to the tune of almost $9 million.

The extra fees, SPU says, are for extra service. You pay for a certain amount of trash to be hauled away each week. Exceeding that amount - propping a bag or two against the bin, filling the bin to overflowing - is OK. But you have to pay for it.

"We offer the service to the customers, lots of people take us up on it and use that extra garbage service," said Sally Hulsman, manager of solid waste contracts at SPU. "And then we ask customers to look at their bill regularly for a lot of reasons and make sure that their bill is accurate."

SPU picks up trash at about 163,000 single-family homes and about 7,000 apartment buildings or condos. The utility charged for extra garbage more than 342,000 times last year, bringing in about $8.7 million.

Elizabeth Forsyth doesn't see it as a service - at least not as it's being applied. She sees it as a scam.

Forsyth, a lawyer for a nonprofit, and her husband moved to north Capitol Hill from Los Angeles in 2020. When they got here, she examined her new utility bills closely - comparing what the household budget would be versus her former home in L.A.

She noticed these extra fees "for garbage that I never put out." She called SPU to complain and got a refund. The charges would come and go over the years, she said, with little connection to the garbage they were putting out for pickup.

And the charges are at the very bottom of the last page of the bill. They come after a page that's totally boilerplate, never changing, just listing phone numbers to call, and seemingly indicating that the juicy part of the bill (if a utility bill can be said to have a juicy part) is over.

She has been on the phone with SPU so often that she rattles off the rules without urging or hesitation.

"I feel like I'm an expert," she said.

SPU will charge you for an extra bag or if your bin lid is propped open more than 6 inches. It does not matter if someone else puts garbage in your bin or dumps next to it - that is your responsibility.

"We are fastidious in not doing those things," Forsyth said. "I installed a Ring doorbell camera on my garage so I have proof."

Last month, after her previous two bills showed nearly $100 in charges, she emailed a neighborhood listserv to see if anyone else was getting charged for potentially phantom garbage.

The responses came rolling in.

"Definitely happening to us, too," wrote one neighbor who had extra charges totaling around $250. "It's easy to miss the extra fees when you only get paperless billing."

"I also got extra charges," wrote another neighbor. "I am extra careful as this keeps happening...so annoying."

Several neighbors thanked Forsyth for the alert, noting they'd been charged nearly weekly and had no idea.

"We've been charged $350 extra for the past 5 bills," one neighbor wrote.

In total, Forsyth said she heard back from 12 neighbors. Ten of them had extra charges. And eight of those 10 had no idea they were being charged until Forsyth alerted them.

"I am happy to pay for garbage that I set out, or if someone is illegally dumping on my property, that's my responsibility, too," Forsyth said. "If you've got a photo of it, I am happy to pay for it, but I believe these are fraud."

Here's how SPU says the whole system works.

The city's two contracted garbage (and recycling and yard waste) collectors, Recology and WM, as they do their rounds, make a note if you have extra trash next to, or piled atop, your bin. You're charged $13.95 per bag, although because bills only arrive every other month, you may not see the charge for a while. When your bill does arrive, the date of the extra trash is noted.

If, when you get your bill, you think you've been charged incorrectly, SPU encourages you to call them up and dispute the charges. They'll credit you, without questioning, for the charges twice in a year. After the second notice, SPU will tell Recology or WM that if there are additional extra garbage charges at your address, the haulers need to take a picture to document them.

At that point, a team at SPU will investigate any further claims of disputed charges.

"That third time it becomes an investigation, so we know why this has continued to happen," Hulsman said. "Because not a large percentage of them get disputed."

Hulsman said she had not heard complaints about where the extra charges are noted on the bill, but pointed out that the bill covers charges for water, sewer and garbage. And she said they hope, one day, to be able to attach a photo of your garbage can when you're charged extra, but they don't yet have the technical systems in place to do so.

As for why a customer, like Forsyth, would be charged when they say they definitely had no extra garbage, SPU cited a few possible reasons.

Some ne'er-do-well could have surreptitiously thrown their garbage in where it doesn't belong. SPU recommends not leaving your bin out on the curb or in the alley for more time than is necessary. Also, with density increasing in Seattle, more apartments and town homes mean more garbage cans clustered together. It's possible your neighbor's excess could be confused for yours.

"The advice that we give is just limit the opportunity for people to confuse carts or place garbage in containers that don't necessarily belong to them," said Christopher Ruiz, code and contracts compliance manager for SPU. "Don't leave your containers out there all the time.

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This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 6:51 AM.