Portland, Oregon Trash Pickup Schedule & Recycling Rules

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Portland trash pickup: collection days, recycling and bulk waste rules.

Portland trash pickup for houses and smallplexes of up to four units is done by a private garbage company the City assigns to your neighborhood, at rates the City sets. Compost, recycling and glass go every week and garbage every other week. Enter your street address in the City’s lookup to find your company and schedule. What trips people up: garbage goes only every other week, so check which weeks are yours, and have bins out by 6 a.m.

• Who collects: Portland BPS assigns a franchised garbage company by neighborhood to houses, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, and sets the rates
• Your pickup day: depends on your address; Who picks up my garbage? ↗ or the Portland Garbage Day Reminder app
• Holiday changes: only Christmas Day and New Year’s Day stop collection; pickups run one day late the rest of that week; Garbage service basics ↗
• Missed pickup: call your garbage company within three days; repeated misses go to the City’s Garbage and Recycling line ↗
• Contact: 503-823-7202, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Oregon Relay 711), wasteinfo@portlandoregon.gov; Metro Recycling Information Center 503-234-3000
• Official website: City of Portland: Garbage, Recycling, and Compost ↗

Photo: Downtown Portland and the Hawthorne Bridge across the Willamette River. M.O. Stevens, 2010-05-13. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source. Resized for web.

Portland trash and recycling pickup schedule

Your garbage company supplies every container. You pay by garbage cart size; recycling, glass and compost are included.

• Bins out by 6 a.m., back in within 24 hours. Trucks come from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. On days forecast at 95°F or hotter, they may start earlier, so set out the night before.
• Place bins within three feet of the curb, handles toward the house, lids closed, with space around each. Keep sidewalks, driveways and bike lanes clear.
• Weight limits: 60 pounds for a 20-gallon cart, 85 for 35, 135 for 60, 175 for 90. Your own garbage cans are not allowed; smaller recycling and compost carts are free on request.
• Print a calendar or get day-before reminders by app, email, text or phone from Garbage day reminders ↗. Single-family homes were mailed a purple or orange 12-month Portland Curbsider schedule in June.

Apartment buildings of five or more units and businesses are not assigned a company; they hire any permitted hauler at rates the City does not set. Landlords of one- to four-unit rentals set up and pay for tenants’ service.

What goes in the Portland recycling cart

Portland follows Oregon’s statewide list under the Recycling Modernization Act ↗. Put items in loose, empty and dry, never bagged. Ignore the resin number: plastic is sorted by shape and size.

• Yes: flattened cardboard, cereal boxes, paper, mail, magazines, paperback books, milk, juice and soup cartons; plastic bottles, jugs and jars with caps screwed on, tubs, buckets and rigid plant pots, at least 2 by 2 inches; cans, empty aerosol cans, empty dry paint cans, foil balled to baseball size, scrap metal under 18 inches and 10 pounds.
• Pizza boxes: empty pizza boxes are recyclable, grease and all. Boxes with cheese or sauce stuck on go in compost; frozen pizza boxes go in the garbage.
• No: shredded paper (now garbage), plastic bags and film, loose caps and snap-on lids, take-out containers, cups, coffee cups, paper plates, frozen food boxes, paper towels, padded mailers, hardback books, batteries, electronics, cords and hoses.
• Glass: bottles and jars of any color, only in the yellow bin. No drinking glasses, dishes, light bulbs, mirrors or window glass.
• Deposit containers can go in your bins or back to a BottleDrop Center or participating grocery store for the refund.
• Motor oil: up to a gallon in a clear, capped plastic jug beside your bins.

Look up any item with Metro’s Find a Recycler ↗ or call 503-234-3000, weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Extra recycling is free in a paper bag or box up to 3 feet on a side; tape extra flattened cardboard into a bundle beside the cart.

Yard waste and food scraps

The green cart takes food and yard waste together every week.

• Yes: all food, including meat, bones, dairy and plate scrapings; coffee grounds, paper filters and tea bags; food-soiled napkins, paper towels and pizza boxes; leaves, grass, weeds, flowers, pumpkins and branches under 4 inches thick and 36 inches long. Line the pail with paper or a BPI-certified compostable bag.
• No: to-go cups and containers, paper plates, anything labeled “compostable,” plastic, grease and cooking oil, pet waste, ashes, dirt, rocks, sod, lumber and stumps.
• Extra yard waste: $4.30 per paper bag, string-tied bundle or labeled can, each up to 32 gallons and 40 pounds.

PBOT’s free Leaf Day sweeps more than 50 Leaf Zones each November and December; the 2026 season runs November 9 to December 21. Find your dates on the Leaf Day ↗ page, rake only loose tree leaves into the street the day before, a foot from the curb. In tow zones, a parked car costs an $85 citation plus $337 in tow fees.

For Christmas trees, remove all decorations and the stand, then cut the tree into 3-foot sections for the green cart or set it out whole, up to 6 feet, beside the cart for $5.60. Artificial and flocked trees are garbage.

Bulk trash pickup in Portland

Your garbage company picks up furniture, appliances, big branches and other large items from the curb at City-set rates. Call at least a week ahead for a quote and a date; the company must come within seven days, not always on your usual day. The bulky waste cost calculator ↗ estimates the price.

Set items out by 6 a.m. on the scheduled day, never more than 24 hours early; if they are not out, you pay the pickup fee plus a second-trip fee. Renters ask the landlord, who holds the account. Mattresses go free to Bye Bye Mattress sites and electronics free to Oregon E-Cycles sites.

Portland holiday trash schedule

Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are the only days without collection. When either falls on a weekday, pickups from the holiday on run one day late for the rest of that week, and Friday customers are served Saturday. Every other holiday is a normal collection day.

Snow, ice, heat or wildfire smoke can delay trucks by days. Leave carts out until emptied; after a delay of a week or more, drivers take the extra at no charge. There are no credits for weather misses.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

Metro, the regional government, takes household hazardous waste free from households at two facilities, up to 35 gallons a day by container size: paint, cleaners, yard and pool chemicals, automotive products, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, aerosol cans that are not empty, gas cylinders, cooking oil, mercury and sharps. No electric vehicle batteries, most explosives or radioactive material. Containers are not returned.

• Metro Central Transfer Station, 6161 NW 61st Ave., Portland, OR 97210. Transfer station 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; hazardous waste Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Garbage $51 up to 240 pounds, then $176.70 a ton plus a $30 transaction fee; coolant appliances $30; tires $30 for the first, then $2 each ($4 with rims). Free: recyclables, metal appliances, electronics (seven a day), up to four mattresses a day, motor oil and antifreeze.
• Metro South Transfer Station, 2001 Washington St., Oregon City, OR 97045. Transfer station 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; hazardous waste 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Same fees; its free list leaves out mattresses.
• Transfer stations close on July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day; hazardous waste facilities on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Heat can close them early; call 503-234-3000.
• Metro also holds free neighborhood hazardous waste collection events ↗ in spring and fall, none in July or August.

Houses recycle loose batteries curbside: tape the ends of any battery not labeled alkaline, seal them in a clear 1-quart zip bag and set it on top of the glass bin. Built-in or damaged lithium-ion batteries go to Metro. TVs and computers cannot go in the garbage; Oregon E-Cycles sites, including both Metro stations, take them free. Leftover paint can also go to Oregon’s PaintCare drop-off sites.

RecycleOn Centers take shredded paper in a closed paper bag, plastic bags and film, plastic lids and caps, and hard plastic multipack handles for free. Confirm hours on RecycleOn Oregon ↗.

• Frog & Toad Hauling, 2711 SE Milwaukie Ave., 97202: Tuesday and Thursday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Ground Score Association, 34 NW Broadway, 97209: weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Green Century Electronics Recycling, 2950 NW 29th Ave. #200, 97210: weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• James Recycling, 5541 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, 97221: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• The Arc of Portland, 6929 NE Halsey St., 97213: Thursday to Monday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Habitat for Humanity ReStore, 10445 SE Cherry Blossom Dr., 97216: Wednesday to Monday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Fees and billing

Your garbage company bills you, at rates City Council adopts each year after a City rate review. Monthly rates from July 1, 2026:

• A 35-gallon cart emptied every four weeks costs $38.10. PortlandMaps shows whether your address is in the hilly Westside Terrain Area.
• Extras: $7.20 per extra bag or can of garbage; $13.30 courtesy callback; $18.90 for a clean cart; extra compost cart $20.60 a month, extra recycling cart $5.60.
• Owner-occupied single-family homes with Water Bureau Tier 2 assistance get $22.55 off each month. Customers with a disability can get free pickup from the yard or driveway.
• Landlords of one- to four-unit rentals who do not provide service can be fined $314 a month or more (one or two units) or $470 or more (three or four).

Missed pickup, damaged carts and new carts

If bins were out by 6 a.m. and got missed, call your garbage company within three days; it must return within 24 hours, not counting weekends and holidays. If you set out late, pay the $13.30 callback, or set out up to double next time at no charge. For frequent misses, contact the City at 503-823-7202 or wasteinfo@portlandoregon.gov; you may get a bill credit. Your company changes cart sizes any time and replaces a stolen glass bin free.

Materials with their own rules

• Pizza boxes: empty boxes in recycling, saucy ones in compost.
• Mattresses: $14 to $29 plus the $18 trip fee by bulky pickup, or free drop-off.
• Paint: free at Metro; empty, dry metal cans go in recycling.
• Lithium-ion batteries: taped and bagged on the glass bin; built-in ones to Metro.
• Household hazardous waste: free at Metro Central and Metro South.
• Christmas trees: cut up in the green cart, or whole for $5.60.
• Tires: $10 each by bulky pickup.
• Aerosol cans and propane tanks: only completely empty aerosol cans are recyclable; the rest go to Metro.

More in Oregon

• Oregon trash and recycling rules
• Holiday changes by city
• Bulk pickup rules by city
• Missed pickup contacts by city
• Drop-off locations by city