Residents

Year-round recycling
Find a recycler
Gresham curbside recycling guide
Recycling resources

Earth Day

The City's annual Earth Day recycling and reuse event keeps tons of recyclable and reusable materials from the landfill. This event is free for all Gresham and Wood Village residents.
Earth Day recyclables

Fluorescent Lights

Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) contain potentially harmful chemicals, including mercury, but they also contain useful materials, such as steel and aluminum, which can be recycled.

Fluorescent light recycling guidelines

Gresham and Wood Village residents and businesses may recycle up to 30 bulbs at the City's annual Earth Day recycling event.
Standard incandescent bulbs and tungsten bulbs are not accepted.
Lights should be packaged carefully to prevent breakage. Boxes can be picked up at the front desk, Gresham City Hall.

Paper Shredding

The City partners with Shred NW to provide residents with free paper shredding at its annual Earth Day recycling event.

Paper shredding guidelines

Paper shredding is provided to Gresham and Wood Village residents only at the City's annual recycling event. Businesses may not participate.
Two paper bags of paper are accepted per household.
Do not mix other materials with your paper.
Stapled papers are okay.
If your paper is contained in a cardboard box, the boxes will be returned to you at the Earth Day recycling event.

Shred NW is a National Association for Information Destruction AAA-certified shredding and recycling company, offering secure shredding service on site.

Plastics

The City will collect large bulky, rigid plastics and plastic bags that are not recyclable in your blue carts at home. Plastic bags should never go in your recycling cart. Bags can be returned to your local grocery store.

We will not be collecting small plastics this year, due to changes in the recycling market.

Plastics recycling guidelines

All plastics must be a five-gallon bucket-sized or larger.
Plastics are acceptable from households only, not businesses.
The City will accept one car trunk load of plastics per household.
Accepted plastics should be clean and dry, without metal components.
Soft plastics, such as inflatable toys will not be accepted.
Curbside recyclables will not be accepted.

Accepted items

Plastic lawn chairs
Rigid, plastic swimming pools
Large, hard, plastic toys – no metal parts
Clean plastic grocery bags
Clean, stretchy plastic bags
Bubble wrap

Unaccepted items

All plastics smaller than a five-gallon bucket
Plastics that can be recycled at home
Inflatable toys
Soft plastics
Plastic with metal components
PVC

Small Appliances and Electronics

Certified electronics recycling and data destruction is provided by Green Century Recycling.

Nonprofits will be on-site collecting working items for donation.


Accepted items Computers, laptops, tablets Monitors and keyboards Hard drives and floppy drives Printers, scanners, fax machines Televisions Radios / stereos Microwaves Blenders Cable boxes Cameras Wires, cords, modems, routers Small household appliances	Unaccepted items Fire extinguishers Mercury-containing items Media (CD, DVD, floppy discs, cassettes) Batteries Old thermostats Smoke detectors Find a recycler for these items.

Styrofoam

Styrofoam recycling guidelines

Only Styrofoam from households will be accepted, not from businesses.
Styrofoam must be clean and all tape and labels removed.
Packing peanuts are accepted.

Not accepted

Soft, squishy Styrofoam, packaging wrap and food containers are not accepted.

Where to recycle home goods and building supplies
Gresham ReStore
610 NE 181st Ave.
ReStore donation guidelines
Contact us

For more information about Earth Day or year-round recycling in Gresham, contact Cherie Ludwig at 503-618-2518 or Cherie.Ludwig@GreshamOregon.gov.
1 of 6

At this event, the City collects materials that are hard to recycle, and small, broken appliances and electronics are hard to find a home for. You can’t put them in your recycling roll cart, yet many contain precious metals that are great to recycle and don’t belong in the landfill.

The City partners with Gresham Sanitary’s Shred Northwest to offer free secure shredding service, for residents only, perfectly timed just after tax season.

The City thanks the community for doing the right thing and recycling, reusing, and reducing waste, especially at the Earth Day event, by bringing in some of the common materials – like plastic sacks - we unfortunately cannot recycle at the curb.

Styrofoam is not recyclable in the regular recycling because it can clog the recycling equipment, and it’s not easy to recycle. Only special facilities can condense or recycle it, and in general it’s not a good material to have. If it does appear, you can save space in your garbage and keep it for Earth Day. Then it will be recycled into other plastic products or turned back into crude oil for other uses.

Fluorescent tubes contain mercury vapor that’s harmful to people and animals. Before the event, boxes for fluorescent tubes are available for free at the City Hall front desk to allow for safe transport. Do not bring fluorescent bulbs with broken glass unless they are safely boxed.

Keep up the recycling spirit all year. One way? Get year-round recycling tips and garbage service reminders with the City’s GoCart! tool for smartphone or computer.