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Solid Waste and
Recycling Info
Welcome to the City of Portsmouth's solid waste and recycling information page.
Here you will find all the information you need to know about:
Please use the links above or the green menu on the left side of the page to find out more about the services we offer.
The City has a Solid Waste Ordinance that establishes guidelines for trash pickup and disposal. The Department of Public Works' Solid Waste Group is responsible for waste collection/disposal from both private / commercial residences / establishments that fall within established criteria. Our objectives are to:
- Provide the City with a means of collecting and disposing of solid waste curbside, including recycling and bulky waste in the most efficient and cost effective manner.
- Dispose of waste at minimal cost and within industry guidelines.
- Ensure waste management practices are in compliance with local, state and federal regulations.
- Keep the City's Streets, sidewalks and Central Business District free of all debris and litter.
- Maintain all City owned trees, shrubbery and beautification sites.
- Provide the City with curbside collection and proper disposal methods for yard waste materials.
Waste Disposal, Paper Recycling and Identity Theft
Which is safer to protecting the information written on your discarded paper: recycling or trash disposal?
ANSWER: Some people think the trash is better. However, neither method is secure for personal or confidential information.
Here are some basic facts, preventive steps and tips to help you while still getting rid of unwanted paper and/or clutter:
- Always shred personal, confidential or sensitive documents, before discarding them. Then you may add them to your paper recycling. For shredding paper instructions
- Shred documents, credit card offers and other personal, confidential or sensitive documents in a timely manner. In other words, don’t leave the credit card offer sit in your mail box for any extended amount of time. For that matter, don’t accumulate these documents or other personal or confidential documents un-necessarily for an extended time – the volume of documents makes the act of shredding – albeit important - that much more tedious.
- Shredders are now readily available over a wide price range. Or, at minimum, tear out and rip up your name, address, account information, and the like, by hand.
Portsmouth is mandatory recycling and these shreds qualify as paper waste to be recycled.
Shredded Paper Instructions
We worry that shredded paper will blow around your yard and neighborhood while awaiting curbside collection or while being emptied into the collection truck. Please take the following steps to prepare your confidential and/or sensitive documents for recycling:
- Place paper shreds into a paper bag and staple or tape the bag shut.
- Add the paper bag to your other paper recyclables. Or
- “Sandwich” or secure your unbundled shreds in a cardboard box.
- Seal the cardboard box shut.
Dan Tynan, author of DIY Identity Theft Protection – A 12 Step Program offers the following tips:
- Get a free copy of your credit report at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
Or call 877-322-8228
- Order a free report every three (3) months from a different credit-reporting bureau (see below). Scan the report for unfamiliar information such as accounts you don’t remember opening.
- Place a fraud alert on your credit report by calling on of the credit bureaus. You can find the contact information for all three bureaus by browsing http://wwwfightidentitytheft.com/credit_bureaus.html?nobid=1
- Put a recurring event on your on-line calendar to remind you to renew your fraud alert in 90 days.
- Tell the bureaus to stop selling your information to credit services by calling 888-567-8688. Doing so will eliminate the number of preapproved credit card offers you receive.
- Request a free public records report from Choice Point: http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/
Scan the report for addresses and other details not related to you.
- Take your name off other marketing lists.
- Buy a mailbox that locks or use a post office box.
- Buy a cross cut paper shredder and shred junk mail to frustrate dumpster diving identity thieves.
* It is recommended that you shred anything with any personal information on it. Thieves love your trash! Shred all bank correspondence & records, insurance correspondence and records, credit/debit card receipts, credit statements, old bills of any kind, unsolicited applications of any type. ANYTHING with your social security or driver’s license number or your birthdate!! And just for luck – anything with an account number on it and your address. Better to wear out a shredded than get your identity stolen from the trash.
- Never click a link from an email message to log into your bank or to any other financial institution. Type the secure site’s address into your browser, bookmark it and use that link to access your accounts. Otherwise you risk having your identity stolen by phishers.
- If you believe that you are a victim of identity theft, contact the Identity Theft Resource Center: http://www.identitytheftcenter.org
Volunteers there can walk you through the process of restoring your identity.
- Get educated:
Mari Frank’s Identity Theft.org
Privacy Rights Clearing House, http://privacyrights.org/ and
The Federal Trade Commission, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/
The above organizations maintain huge libraries of information on how to avoid being victimized, and what to do if it has already happened.
If you suspect and/or discover you are a victim of credit card fraud or identity theft file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and your local Police Department.
FTC, Phone: 88-7438-4338
Credit Bureau Contact Info:
Equifax
PO Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
1-888-766-0008
www.Equifax.com
Experian
PO Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
1-888-397-3742
TransUnion
PO Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-680-7289
www.TransUnion.com
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