The City of Greensboro garbage-recycling pickup schedule in principle is pretty simple, but in practice it can be devilishly confusing.

Every week on your designated day, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, the city picks up garbage and yard waste, and every other week the city picks up garbage, yard waste, recycling and bulk trash.

Holidays change the pickup day, with Monday going to Tuesday and Tuesday going to Wednesday and for later in the week Thursday goes to Wednesday and Friday goes to Thursday. The day of the week changes but not the garbage-recycling schedule.   Maybe it’s not so simple after all.

Unfortunately, for those (of us) utterly confused by the schedule, the city added a degree of difficulty by sending out incorrect 2022 recycling calendars to 31,000 households.

Evidently, some residents of Greensboro are extremely attune to the garbage-recycling schedule, and when they looked at the calendar they had been sent they immediately knew that the third week in August 2022 was not a garbage and recycling pickup day but a garbage only day.

To those people, the press release states that the city has identified all the residents who received the wrong calendar and adds, “There is no need to call the City to report that you received the wrong calendar.  The city will send each affected household a follow up mailer identifying the error and providing the correct calendar.”

The press release adds, “If you need to know now which recycling day or week you are (red or blue), you can easily find out by searching your address in the GSO Collects tool online or on your smartphone (http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/collects).”

The city also advises people who received the wrong calendar that they can go to www.greensboro-nc.gov/collects and print out their own correct calendar.

There is another solution for those who are technology challenged that is almost as foolproof as the free app, GSO Collects.  This method requires no smart phone or computer and, according to those who use it, while not foolproof is usually accurate.  You can wait and see what the majority of your neighbors do and do likewise.  Reports indicate that one or two folks on a street may get it wrong, but rarely does an entire neighborhood.