Recycling Service

All households are provided with a recycling service; a yellow-lidded recycling bin which is collected every 2 weeks on the same day (in most cases) as your regular garbage bin by Council’s recycling contractor, J.J Richards & Sons.

For clarification of collection days or if you experience any service problems please contact the JJ Richards hotline on 9677 0024.

Council offers a commingled recycling service, which means that all recyclables can be placed in the bin together. This makes recycling easier and means you can maximise the amount you recycle and reduce the amount of resources going to landfill.

Houses, villas and townhouses receive one recycling bin per property. Units share one recycling bin between three units.

What goes in the recycling bin:

• Glass bottles and jars
• Paper items (including newspapers, phone books, magazines and junk mail)
• Juice and milk cartons
• Cardboard boxes and packets
• Steel and aluminium cans and empty aerosol cans
• Plastic bottles and containers (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7)
  

You can see some pictures of what can be recycled. 

Never place the items below in your recycling bin; they can contaminate a whole load of recycling and pose a health and safety risk to the staff at the facility where the recycling is taken (as the first stage of sorting is by hand).

Not to go in the recycling bin: 

• Plastic bags (most supermarkets will accept these for recycling, visit Recycling Near You)
• Green waste
• Syringes and medical waste
• Food waste
• Polystyrene
• Light bulbs, mirrors or drinking glasses
• Crockery
• Ceramics or ovenware
• Hazardous or chemical waste

Recycling tips:

• All lids should be removed from bottles and containers. The lids should be placed in the garbage bin.
• Do not place items in a plastic bag in the recycling bin – these materials will not get recycled.
• Flatten plastic and cardboard containers – this just helps you make more space in your recycling bin.
• Please rinse recyclable containers in old washing up water before placing them in the recycling bin.

All materials collected in Council’s recycling service are taken to VISY Recycling at Smithfield for sorting before distribution to relevant industries for recycling into new products. The VISY website has more information about how the material is sorted.

For further information about recycling please contact Council’s Waste Services section on 9840 9840.