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City of Seattle

Of?ce of the Mayor
City of Seattle
Bruce A. Harrell, Mayor

Executive Order 2017-07: Increasing the Removal of Litter and Illegal Dumping in Public Places

An Executive Order directing the General Manager/CEO of Seattle Public Utilities to increase the
removal of trash, litter and waste from public places in the City of Seattle.

WHEREAS, a clean and healthful community environment is a public asset, a source of civic pride
and improves residents? sense of safety and well?being; and

WHEREAS, complaints about litter, and illegal dumping have increased by 125 percent since 2014,
and in responding to the 13,468 complaints in public places in 2016, the City removed over 1.2
million pounds of waste, or the equivalent of 67 full garbage trucks; and

WHEREAS, Seattle Public Utilities operates or manages a variety of programs under the Clean City
Program to remove litter from public areas, remove illegally dumped materials, abate graffiti,
support community-based volunteer cleanups and remove hypodermic needles, and expanded
efforts over the last two years have decreased response times; and

WHEREAS, the City has activated the Emergency Operations Center in February 2017, in part to
remove litter accumulated around the City, and these litter removal efforts by Seattle Public
Utilities, many other City departments and partner jurisdictions and agencies have in seven
months already resulted in the additional removal of over six million pounds of illegally dumped
litter and debris, filling the equivalent of over 333 garbage trucks; and

WHEREAS, the accumulation of litter, waste and debris continues to be illegally dumped,
accumulate, and create an uninviting, unsafe and unhealthful environment that affects
all people in Seattle; and

NOW, THEREFORE, 1, Bruce A. Harrell, Mayor of Seattle, hereby order Seattle Public Utilities Solid
Waste Division to expand waste removal efforts and increase the amount of waste removed from
public places in Seattle:

Section 1. Trash Removal Expansion. The General Manager/CEO of Seattle Public Utilities (SPU)
shall expand and increase operations of the Clean City Program focused to remove litter from
public areas and work collaboratively with other City departments, and other government
agencies to increase the volume of litter removed from public places in all areas of Seattle.

 

Office of the Mayor 600 Fourth Avenue, PO. Box 94749, Seattle, WA 98124 206-684?4000 seattle.gov/mayor

 

Section 2. Request Initiated Trash Removal. The improvement in litter removal services will be
targeted to areas that reflect the community?s highest priorities as identified by Seattle residents
through requests made to the seattle.gov customer service portal, the Illegal Dumping Hotline,
the Customer Service Bureau and the Find It, Fix It smartphone app, SPU is mindful that not all
communities consistently use these methods of reporting and so also prioritizes neighborhoods
with known illegal dumping and litter challenges to help assure communities receive equitable
services. SPU has documented recurring issues in these neighborhoods and will continue to
proactively monitor and address frequent problem areas. SPU will further identify ten priority
sites for litter removal on an ongoing basis and will publicly provide a shortened timeline for
removal at those sites.

Section 3. Resource Assessment Evaluation. The respective directors, superintendents or
general managers of the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Seattle Department of
Transportation, Seattle City Light, and Department of Finance and Administrative Services shall
transmit by memorandum to the General Manager/CEO of Seattle Public Utilities an assessment
of unmet waste removal needs and opportunities on properties within their respective
jurisdictions, in order to leverage resources and work collaboratively to improve illegal dumping
and litter issues. Each department will also identify resources of their respective departments
that could be deployed through the Clean Cities collaborative effort, to further reduce litter in
the City by no later than October 13, 2017.

inquiries by City Departments, grantees, and contracted service providers regarding this
Executive Order should be directed to Chris Potter, Director of Facilities Operations for the
Department of Finance and Administrative Services at (206) 386-1576.

Dated this 15th day of September, 2017.

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Bruce A. Harrell
Mayor, City of Seattle

 

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