Since January of 2005, City of Seattle's ban on recyclables in the garbage has prohibited the disposal of recyclable paper and cardboard in the garbage. This ordinance applies to clean material only. In 2008, UW Recycling transitioned to a new collection system for recyclable paper. All paper is collected as a mixed paper stream in the new mixed paper bagits, which are emptied by Custodial Services into large mixed paper toters at each building's loading dock. The toters are serviced with a compacting collection truck at the loading dock by UW Recycling collection staff, consolidated into a compactor at the Bryant Annex Shed, and then transported to a sorting facility in South Seattle.
In most shared office/lab space on campus, recyclable office paper is collected in bag-its. Bag-its are reusable polypropylene bags that have handles and are held open on stands, which hold either one or two bag-its. Bag-its are to be used in spaces such as labs, copy rooms, mail rooms, and shared offices.