What goes in each bin?

Putting the right things in your garbage, recycling and food and garden bins means as much of your waste as possible can be recovered and recycled. Here's what you can – and can't – put in each bin.

 

  • Old clothing, shoes and linen
  • Broken crockery
  • Window glass, mirrors and light globes
  • Nappies
  • General household rubbish, including food scraps and animal waste
  • Dirty pizza boxes and other contaminated plastics and cardboard
  • Polystyrene and foam
  • Broken toys
  • Plastic bags, soft plastic packets and wrappers
  • Hard plastics six and seven.

Make sure your recyclables are clean and dry before putting them in your recycling bin. Always put your recycling into the bin loose.

Yes please! These items can go in your recycling bin

  • Paper and cardboard
    • Paper, newspaper (remove any plastic wrapping)
    • Magazines, junk mail, flyers
    • Greeting cards, postcards
    • Envelopes (with or without plastic windows)
    • Wrapping paper (excluding foil or plastic wrapping)
    • Paper bags
    • Cardboard boxes (unwaxed, flattened)
    • Pizza boxes (without food or oil stains)
    • Egg cartons
  • Glass bottles and jars
    • Sauce bottles
    • Drink containers
    • Jars from jams, spreads
    • Coffee jars
    • Salsa, pasta sauce jars
  • Plastic bottles and hard plastic containers (numbered 1, 2 or 5)
    • Milk bottles
    • Water, soft drink bottles
    • Yoghurt, Ice cream containers
    • Cleaning, detergent, shampoo bottles
    • Margarine and butter tubs
    • Meat trays (excluding black trays)
    • Medicine bottles
  • Steel cans
    • Fruit tins
    • Vegetable cans
    • Pet food cans
    • Aerosol cans (empty)
  • Aluminium cans and foil
    • Drink cans
    • Food cans
    • Pet food cans
    • Aerosol cans (empty)
    • Aluminium foil (scrunch into a loose ball)
    • Aluminium trays

No thanks – these items cannot go in your recycling bin

  • Batteries, light globes
  • Electronics (anything with a plug, battery or power cord)
  • Paint
  • Gas cannisters
  • Food, liquids
  • Garden clippings, tree branches
  • General waste, garbage
  • Broken glass
  • Drinking glassware, ceramics
  • Window glass
  • Plastic bags
  • Soft plastic such as bread bags, chip packets, lolly wrappers
  • Plastics numbered 3, 4, 6 or 7
  • Medicine blister packs
  • Black plastics, such as meat trays or plant pots
  • Fresh milk, juice and Tetrapak cartons
  • Polystyrene
  • Clothing, shoes and textiles
  • Photographs
  • Waxed paper and cardboard 

Understanding packaging labels

Turn any plastic item over and check if it has a recycling label with a number in the centre of it.

The label will provide you with easy recycling information and can help remove confusion, saving you time and reducing waste to landfill.

For more information on Australian recycling labels please check out this link:

Australian Recycling Labels

Council accepts rigid and semi-rigid plastics numbered one, two, and five.

Plastics six and seven belong in your general waste bin. 

Our new Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) service allows residents to put food and garden waste in the same bin, reducing the quantity of waste going to landfill. Find out more on the FOGO page 

Only the following items can be placed in your organics bin:

  • Fruit and vegetable scraps
  • Meat and cooked food 
  • Dairy, bread, and pasta products
  • Processed, leftover, and spoilt food
  • Small branches and twigs - maximum branch thickness is 10cm
  • Grass clippings
  • Leaves
  • Garden cuttings and weeds.   

We don't collect the following items:

  • Plant pots
  • Soil and rock
  • Wire and string
  • Plastic wrapping and packaging
  • Pet waste
  • Plastic and compostable bags
  • Large tree branches
  • Garbage

If your Organics bin has items that are not accepted, it may result in an entire truckload of material being sent to landfill.

Find other ways to dispose of your waste by visiting the Your options for rubbish disposal page.

Hume's household bin service includes three bins:

  • Garbage bins (red lid) are collected weekly
  • Recycling bins (yellow lid) are collected every two weeks
  • Food and garden bins (bright green lid) are collected every two weeks, alternating with recycling.

Please note that some older bins might have a different coloured lid to the one listed above. Your bin lids may be light green for garbage, dark green for recycling and maroon for food and garden waste.

Council operates a bin inspection program to reduce incorrect items (contaminants) being placed in recycling bins.

Placing incorrect items in your recycling bin:

  • causes health and safety issues at the sorting facility
  • slows down the sorting process
  • can cause entire truckloads of recyclables to be sent to landfill (the tip).

Contamination stickers

A sticker will be placed on your bin if it contains incorrect items.

If you get a contamination sticker:

  1. Check to see what items should be removed
  2. Remove these items
  3. Call us on 9205 2200 to arrange for your recycling to be collected.

Residents who continue to place the wrong items in their recycling bins may have their recycling service cancelled and may receive a fine (infringement notice).

Order a bin for your new property or make a change to your existing bin service by visiting our Bin Collection Services page.

Visit our Bin collection services page for more information on how to place your bins out for collection.

Visit our Bin Collection Services page for more information on reporting missed bins.

Visit our Bin collection services page for more information on reporting damaged or stolen bins to Council.