King County’s new recycling and transfer station in Algona nears completion and features improved water quality, restored habitat

When the South County Recycling and Transfer Station in Algona opens this summer to replace its 60-year-old predecessor, customers of King County’s newest solid waste facility will find convenient waste disposal and a wide range of recycling options. 

Built with a focus on sustainability and environmental stewardship to ensure long-lasting service for communities in and around Algona, Auburn, Federal Way and Pacific, this new station will feature separate disposal areas for commercial garbage haulers and public self-haul customers. 

Customers can recycle appliances, glass, metal, plastic, wood, paper and yard waste, along with safe disposal of household hazardous waste – all in a modern building that’s bigger, brighter and healthier than the existing transfer station. 

“When we set out to build the South County Recycling and Transfer Station, we were not only looking to provide modern recycling and disposal services to our community,” said Solid Waste Division Director Rebecca Singer. “It was also our goal to provide those services while using less energy with fewer impacts to the surrounding ecosystem.” 

Green design and construction – on a grand scale 

From the earliest planning stages of this new recycling and transfer station, the King County Solid Waste Division sought to create a public facility that met ambitious goals for reduced energy use and improved environmental conditions as outlined in King County’s Strategic Climate Action Plan.  

The project team took on the challenge, and the result is a new facility that features:  

• Skylights and solar tubes that allow natural sunlight into the administrative, hazardous waste, and transfer buildings, lowering the need for additional light fixtures. Powerful solar panels also cover 75% of the rooftop, providing about a third of the station’s energy requirements. Coupled with the PSE Green Direct program that produces renewable energy from wind power, the new transfer station can achieve a carbon neutral building development performance and qualify for the Living Building Challenge – Energy Petal certification.  
• Three massive underground tanks to store stormwater and control release, improving local water quality by holding flows from heavy rain and filtering runoff. 
• Rooftop rainwater that will be collected in cisterns totaling 20,000 gallons and used for rinsing off floors and other essential tasks, saving potable water that would normally be used for those jobs. 

• Design strategies reduced the amount of concrete and other construction materials to further cut the environmental footprint by lessening embodied emissions. The project is on course to divert 92% of its construction and demolition materials from landfills to recycling facilities supporting a circular economy system.  

Construction leads to hands-on green jobs training in South King County 

The replacement project’s environmental benefits extend across the nearly 10-acre site and beyond. For decades, groundwater that flowed across the property was confined to a buried pipe before emptying into a small creek that feeds into a tributary of salmon-bearing Algona Creek, several miles downstream. 

That pipe has been removed and now there’s a channel carrying flows along the surface. The watercourse’s banks are planted with native trees and shrubs, creating habitat for birds and other wildlife. The newly daylit channel also includes trees that had to be cut to make room for recycling and transfer station construction but were put to use recreating natural habitat.  

Building the South County Recycling and Transfer Station also offered an opportunity for environmental education and job training. 

The Solid Waste Division partnered with Duwamish Infrastructure Restoration Training Corps to run a green apprenticeship and environmental education course as part of the Algona construction project. 

Fifteen DIRT Corps trainees completed an eight-week paid program, diving into hands-on restoration topics such as building green stormwater infrastructure, restoring native plants, and installing rainwater collection systems. 

DIRT Corps trainees also gained valuable experience they can use to advance their careers while improving air quality and stormwater management and creating new habitat in the communities the South County Recycling and Transfer Station will serve: 

• Approximately 3,000 square feet of blackberry and other weeds were controlled at Fenster Nature Park in Auburn, while another 2,000 square feet of weeds were removed from Teufel Park along the Green River. 
• Rain gardens were maintained at World Relief Paradise Parking Plots Gardens in Kent. 
• Observed installation demonstrations of green building technology such as rainwater collection systems. 

The effort was prioritized because of the strong interest from community stakeholders in sustainability education and job training. The collaboration with DIRT Corps lays the foundation for future equity and social justice practices by providing opportunities to connect to environmental professions and gain experience for women and underrepresented communities. 

Earning recognition for green design, construction and operation – plus habitat and environmental improvements 

South County Recycling and Transfer Station project managers sought independent confirmation through two well-known environmental performance certification organizations to ensure the facility would meet high standards for sustainability in design, construction, and operation.  

The Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge, which promotes the measurement of sustainability in the built environment, noted the Algona project’s rooftop solar panels, sustainable construction, natural lighting inside the main transfer building, and native vegetation plantings across the project site. 

The facility is on track to become the first Living Building Challenge Energy Petal-certified recycling and solid waste transfer station in the nation. 

The Solid Waste Division also received recognition for its urban habitat and stormwater management work at the Algona project site from Salmon-Safe Puget Sound.  

Like the Living Building Challenge recognition, Salmon-safe certification required rigorous independent review of the construction project, including work to improve the project site’s beneficial qualities for fish and wildlife. 
 
The certification team specifically called out work to control soil erosion and sediment during construction, and for the extensive native vegetation plantings across the project. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved with this project,” said Singer. “We are building sustainability into an essential public amenity that will serve south King County residents and businesses for decades to come.”