%SystemDrive%\$Recycle.Bin

Each (NTFS?) drive has a hidden and protected folder with the name $Recycle.bin into which «deleted» files and directories are moved

%SystemDrive%\$Recycle.Bin contains subfolders whose names correspond to the SIDs of the users who deleted the files.

Accessing the recycle bin in PowerShell

The recycle bin can be accessed in PowerShell via the COM class(?) shell.application.

$shell      =  new-object -comObject shell.application
$recycleBin = $shell.namespace(10)

$recycleBin.items()

Empty the recycle bin from a PowerShell session

#
#    https://stackoverflow.com/a/41195176
#


add-type shell32 @'

    [DllImport("shell32.dll")]

    public static extern int SHEmptyRecycleBin(
        IntPtr hwnd,
        string pszRootPath,
        int    dwFlags
    );

'@ -Namespace System

$SHERB_NOCONFIRMATION = 0x1
$SHERB_NOPROGRESSUI   = 0x2
$SHERB_NOSOUND        = 0x4

$dwFlags              = $SHERB_NOCONFIRMATION

$res = [shell32]::SHEmptyRecycleBin([IntPtr]::Zero, $null, $dwFlags)

if ($res) { "Error 0x{0:x8}: {1}" -f $res,`
    (new-object ComponentModel.Win32Exception($res)).Message
}
exit $res

Github repository scripts-and-utilities, path: /empty-recycleBin.ps1

%SystemDrive%\$Recycle.Bin

Accessing the recycle bin in PowerShell

Empty the recycle bin from a PowerShell session

See also