What is Washington's Organics Management Law? BOMA, ORCA and 2027, explained

Washington's Organics Management Law is the state's rule for keeping food scraps and yard waste out of the landfill. For businesses, the key part is simple: if your address sits inside a Business Organics Management Area (BOMA) and you throw out 96 gallons or more of organic waste a week, you must arrange organics management. That rule has applied since Jan 1, 2026, and fines have been possible since July 1, 2026.

The short version

• Name: the Organics Management Law, built from HB 1799 (2022), HB 2301 (2024) and 2SHB 1497 (2025). The business rule is RCW 70A.205.545.
• Who: businesses inside a BOMA that make 96 gallons or more of organic waste a week. About one 96-gallon cart, filled once a week.
• Counted how: per address. A company with ten locations has ten separate answers.
• What to do: get organics service, or manage the waste another way the law allows.
• Next date: the 2027 BOMA map takes effect Jan 1, 2027.

What is a BOMA?

BOMA stands for Business Organics Management Area. It is the state's map of places where the business rule applies. The Department of Ecology names the areas by July 1 each year, and each map holds for the next calendar year, starting Jan 1. An area makes the map when businesses there can get year-round organics collection and the facilities that take the material have room for more.

So the map that matters right now is the 2027 map. Find your address on Ecology's interactive map (linked in the sources below). If it sits in a blue area, the 96-gallon rule can reach you.

What counts as a business?

More than most people think. Ecology counts any for-profit or nonprofit, public or private: restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, schools, hospitals, places of worship, assisted living and government buildings. Multifamily residential buildings are not businesses under this rule. Apartments and condos come later, through local plans.

How the 96 gallons is counted

Count organic waste: food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard debris. Each address is measured on its own. If you go over 96 gallons in any single week, Ecology says you need the right service level, so a busy season counts.

Some waste does not count toward the total, including organics you manage on site, waste from a natural disaster, and product recall waste that has to be landfilled.

How to comply

• Subscribe to organics service. You can choose your hauler. It does not have to be the company that picks up your trash.
• Manage it on site, for example composting it yourself.
• Self-haul it to an organics facility.
• Waste less food, and donate or rescue what is still edible.

If a landscaping company handles your grounds, the contract must require that their green waste is managed under the law too. That one is easy to miss.

What is ORCA?

ORCA stands for Organics Recycling Collection Area. BOMA puts the duty on the business. ORCA puts it on the city or county.

By Apr 1, 2027, cities and counties on the ORCA map must offer year-round organics collection (at least 26 weeks a year) to single-family homes and to businesses that make more than 0.25 cubic yards, about 50 gallons, a week. From Apr 1, 2030 that service becomes mandatory for those customers, and it must take food waste. Places with fewer than 25,000 residents, or that dispose of 5,000 tons or less of solid waste, are not on the ORCA map.

That matters because a business outside a BOMA can still be inside an ORCA. Check both maps.

Fines

Your county, city or local health department enforces the rule. Before any fine, they must send you two certified letters: a notification letter, then a notice of violation. After that the minimum penalties are:

• $500 a day for a first violation
• $750 a day for a second
• $1,000 a day for a third or later

Local jurisdictions can set higher penalties. Small businesses are capped at $10,000 in penalties a year. For now, Ecology says jurisdictions are focused on help more than fines.

Paperwork

There is no state reporting requirement for businesses in a BOMA. A county or local health department can add one, and would tell you directly.

Dates to know

• Jan 1, 2026: the 96-gallon threshold starts (it was 8 cubic yards from 2024 and 4 cubic yards from 2025).
• July 1, 2026: penalties become possible.
• Fall 2026: Ecology plans to publish a list of businesses likely covered.
• Jan 1, 2027: the 2027 BOMA map takes effect.
• Apr 1, 2027: ORCA cities and counties must offer year-round organics collection.
• Apr 1, 2030: ORCA service becomes mandatory for covered homes and businesses.

What to do now

• Look up every address on the BOMA map and the ORCA map.
• Estimate each site's weekly organic waste, including your busiest week.
• Check your current service and your landscaping contracts.
• Keep a simple record of what you set up at each address, so you can answer quickly if a certified letter ever arrives.

Running a lot of locations? That is where it gets tedious, and where we help. Check your addresses with us and we will tell you which rules reach each site. We track the law on our Washington page.