Arty Trash Cans Coming to S/SW Portland

[January 23, 2026]

The City of Portland’s Public Garbage Can program will add up to 150 cans to South and Southwest Portland this Spring. If you live or work in these areas, the City wants your opinion on where to place them. (Outside of downtown, which already has plenty of them.)

Provide feedback and learn more here.

The cans are decorated with art commissioned from local artists.

Trash cans in the Hillsdale business district are currently owned and maintained by a number of entities, including businesses, the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association, Portland Parks, TriMet, and possibly Multnomah County Library. Some of these could be replaced by the new city cans. So when filling out the feedback form, place the markers everywhere you think a can is needed, whether or not there is currently a can at that location.

Program overview

The public trash can program began several years ago in Southeast Portland and has since expanded to include about 1,400 cans. South and Southwest Portland are the last areas to be added. Funding comes entirely from tip fees (dump fees) charged to residential and business garbage haulers under city contract.

Under the program, the city installs new cans and contracts with local haulers to:

• Empty cans at least twice a week

• Provide maintenance, repair, and graffiti removal

• Collect bulky waste or illegally dumped items nearby

There is no fee to businesses or residents.

The 65-gallon trash cans are 4.5 feet tall and take up a 3x3-foot space on the ground. A smaller, slightly shorter 35-gallon trash can may be used where sidewalks are too narrow. The cans have a side attachment for deposit beverage bottles.

The cans work with modern trash collection trucks for efficient emptying, unlike the existing concrete rounds in Hillsdale that require a technician to lift out the receptacle within.

Artists on a list maintained by RAC (Regional Arts Council) are randomly invited to submitted their portfolio. Three artists are then selected by a committee to submit two pieces of art each, resulting in six new artworks which are then put into circulation on new and existing cans.

Hillsdale considerations

Jeremy Basurto from the City’s public garbage can program attended a recent meeting of the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association (HBPA) to answer questions about the program. Meeting attendees asked questions about the details and learned that while HBPA will be able to express preferences for the art on cans placed in Hillsdale, those preferences are advisory only. Basurto said he expects that initially any cans installed in Hillsdale will have the latest designs, but there are no guarantees for future can replacements.

Additionally, at over 4’ tall, it’s unclear whether these cans would work as replacements for the current round concrete cans in place in Hillsdale as they may be too big for the available space.

Regarding continued maintenance for the cans once installed, Basurto pointed out program funding, not a general fund item, has been stable for the past few years. However, it’s fair to ask if the City could eye this fund for other urgent needs as we face another budget deficit in 2026-27.