Maine Trash Pickup and Waste Rules

Maine trash pickup is run by cities, counties and private haulers, not by the state, and your pickup day comes from your city’s or hauler’s own lookup. Among the largest cities, Portland, Lewiston and Bangor collect curbside themselves. Maine has a bottle deposit, a PaintCare paint drop-off program and an electronics recycling law, but no statewide mattress program.

Find your city

The largest Maine cities and their official collection pages:

Portland: City of Portland Department of Public Works. Portland uses pay-as-you-throw: trash is collected only in the city’s purple bags and must be curbside, with recycling in the blue cart, by 6:30 AM on your collection day. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗

Lewiston: City of Lewiston Public Works Department, Solid Waste Division. The Solid Waste Division collects residential trash and single-stream recycling curbside weekly, and carts must be out no sooner than 6 PM the evening before and no later than 7 AM on collection day. Official page ↗

Bangor: City of Bangor Public Works Department. Trash and recycling go together into one city-issued 96-gallon bin that must be out by 6:30 AM, and yard waste is not collected at the curb but can be dropped at Public Works, 530 Maine Avenue. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗

Missing your city? Suggest a City.

Who collects in Maine

Maine municipalities must ensure residents have a collection site or event that accepts covered electronic devices, and some collection sites charge a small fee. Source ↗
Maine DEP’s Help ME Recycle map shows recycling locations for electronics, fluorescent bulbs and mercury thermostats, and a downloadable spreadsheet of Maine recycling locations is available from the same page. Source ↗

National haulers (Republic Services, WM, Waste Connections) hold contracts in many places; the city or county names the hauler for each street.

State-level rules

Container deposit: Maine has a bottle deposit law. Maine DEP runs a beverage container redemption program with a 15-cent refundable deposit on spirits and wine containers and 5 cents on beer, hard cider, wine coolers, soda and non-carbonated water containers; milk, dairy, Maine apple cider and blueberry juice are excluded. Source ↗
Paint: Maine is on the PaintCare roster. PaintCare has run Maine’s paint stewardship program since October 2015, with 128 year-round drop-off sites; Maine DEP is the oversight agency. See paint. Source ↗
Mattresses: No statewide mattress take-back program. The Mattress Recycling Council operates programs only in states with mattress recycling laws: California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. See mattresses. Source ↗
Electronics: Under Maine’s e-waste product stewardship law manufacturers pay to recycle televisions, monitors, laptops, tablets, printers and other covered screen devices, and it is illegal to throw away cathode ray tubes and LCD screens in Maine. Source ↗
Yard waste: No statewide landfill ban. No statewide landfill ban was found; Maine DEP’s composting guide says bans on disposing of leaves and yard trimmings with municipal solid waste are municipal, and nearly a third of Maine communities have instituted them. Source ↗

State agency

State agency: Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management. Licenses and regulates solid waste facilities, runs the state’s waste and recycling rules and product stewardship programs, and gives residents, towns and businesses technical help and statewide waste data. Official website ↗

Find your local program: Help ME Recycle map (Maine DEP) ↗

Contact: (207) 287-4858