Portland Courant

Sign up for free reminders and never miss garbage day again!

Have you ever woken up in a panic realizing you forgot to set out your waste bins the night before? Or taken all your bins to the curb because you couldn’t remember which were getting picked up?

Join the 39,000+ Portlanders that get day-before reminders and you’ll never miss a pickup or scramble to get your bins out in time.

Whether you rent or own your home, or live in a house, duplex, triplex, or fourplex, these reminders are for you. (Commercial and apartment buildings: Ask your garbage company for your schedule.)

Sign up for reminders

Choose the type (and time) of reminder that works for you

Here are all the reminder types you can choose from:

• App
• Text message
• Email
• Calendar reminder (Google calendar, iCal, Outlook)
• Phone call

When signing up for reminders, you can choose the time you want the reminder to arrive.

Get real-time alerts about snow delays and more

When you sign up for reminders, you’ll also get real-time notifications when there are waste collection delays due to snow and ice, or if pickup will happen earlier than usual on very hot days. (If you just want service alerts, without weekly reminders, you can sign up for that too – see directions below.)

In the weekly reminders, we’ll include quick tips to clear up recycling confusion and let you know when special recycling drop-off events are happening.

Sign up for multiple reminders

Would you like an email reminder at 5 p.m. and a text message at 8 p.m. just in case you haven’t gotten around to setting your bins out? Sign up for both!

Is taking out the trash your teenager’s chore? Send them a link to the app or suggest they sign up for text messages.

How to sign up for reminders

Download the app

Get notifications about which bins to set out and find answers to the most common garbage and recycling questions, all in one place:

• Look up whether something can be recycled or donated, and where the nearest drop-off locations are.
• Look up your garbage company to ask about your bill, report a missed pickup, or schedule a large-item pickup.
• Play the Recycle or Not game to test your recycling knowledge.

Download the Portland Garbage Day Reminder app in the App Store or Google Play.

Get email, text, or phone call reminders

1. Go to www.portland.gov/garbageday
2. Enter your street address.
3. Click on Get a reminder!
4. Choose email, phone call, or text message.
5. Enter your email or phone number* and the time you want to receive your reminder.
6. *For text messages, you’ll receive a text that says “Reply YES to confirm” – you’ll need to reply YES. For phone call reminders, you will receive a phone call (you will need to pick up, listen to the message and hit a number key to confirm you want to receive weekly emails.)

And you’re done!

Service Alerts only option

If you don’t want weekly garbage day reminders but do want to be notified in cases of garbage service disruptions, like snow delays or early pickup on hot days, you can sign up for service alerts only. The service alerts option is only available by email at this time.

Here’s how to sign up for Service Alerts:

1. Go to www.portland.gov/garbageday
2. Enter your street address.
3. Click on Get a reminder!
4. Choose Service alerts only
5. Enter your email or phone number and the time you want to receive your reminder.

No internet access? No problem.

Know someone without internet access or who prefers information in print or by text or phone call?

Encourage them to give us a call at 503-823-7202. We can print and mail them a calendar or sign them up for weekly reminders by text or recorded voice calls. We’ll need to know their home address, and for text or phone call reminders, their phone number, whether they prefer text messages or phone calls, and what time of day they want to receive a reminder.

Cancel reminders at any time

It’s easy to cancel reminders – every reminder type (email, text, call) includes instructions on how to cancel. If you have trouble canceling your reminder, just contact us and we can do it for you.

Print a custom calendar for your address

Download a calendar that shows just the collection days for your home’s address.

1. Go to www.portland.gov/garbageday
2. Enter your street address.
3. Click on Get a calendar
4. Scroll down to Print a Calendar
5. At the top of the page, click Print (this will download a PDF)

Reminders available in multiple languages

When signing up, choose the drop-down menu for Spanish, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, or Russian.

Or download the app, which will automatically switch to your phone’s language settings.

Original source can be found here