Empty SharePoint Recycle Bins Programmatically with PowerShell

In a Database attachment method migration project, we decided to clear all the recycle bins to get some additional free space in databases. There were 3000+ site collections. Automation?

SharePoint Automation = PowerShell  :-)

Empty SharePoint Site Collection Recycle bin using PowerShell:

#Get the Site Collection
$Site = Get-SPSite "https://portal.crescent.com/sites/test"

#Delete all from 1st Stage Recycle bin
$Site.AllWebs | Foreach-object { $_.RecycleBin.MoveAllToSecondStage() }

#Empty 2nd Stage Recycle bin
$Site.RecycleBin.DeleteAll();

PowerShell Script to Empty SharePoint Recycle Bins Programmatically:
Lets empty the recycle bin of all site collection under a given web application using PowerShell.

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue 

$WebApp=Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet.crescent.com"

    foreach ($SPSite in $webApp.Sites)
    {
      #get the collection of webs
      foreach($SPWeb in $SPSite.AllWebs)
         {
             #Empty the 1st Stage Recycle bin items PERMENANTLY
             #$SPWeb.RecycleBin.DeleteAll();
             
             #Send the 1st Stage Recycle bin items to 2nd Stage
             $SPWeb.RecycleBin.MoveAllToSecondStage();

              write-host "End-User Recycle Bin Items Deleted for:" 
              write-host $SPWeb.title ":" $SPWeb.URL "`n"

              #Dispose Web object
              $SPWeb.Dispose()
         }
             #Empty SharePoint site collection recycle bin (Second Stage Recycle bin) or Admin Recycle bin
             $SPSite.RecycleBin.DeleteAll();

             #Dispose Site object
             $SPSite.Dispose()

    write-host "Administrator Recycle bin Items Deleted for:" $SPSite.RootWeb.title "`n"
    }

Above code is fairly simple, and can be rewritten in C# also.

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