Recycling bin FAQs

When glass bottles and jars are thrown in the recycling bin with other recyclables, they can break. Small shards of glass become lodged in other recycling, making them less valuable and more difficult to recycle. Separating glass ensures we can recover more glass, as well as recycle and reuse more of the paper, cardboard, plastics and metals from our recycling bins.

Keeping glass out of your yellow-lid recycling bin also makes space for other recyclables so your household can recycle even more.

Glass bottles and jars collected through our purple-lid bins are crushed and can be used to make new bottles and jars, or as a replacement for quarried sand in construction projects, such as roads and footpaths.

Plastic containers usually have a number on them inside a triangle.

This number indicates the type of plastic, NOT whether the item can be recycled. Council’s recycling processor only accepts plastics that are numbered 1, 2 and 5 inside the triangle.

All other plastics marked 3, 4, 6 & 7 must go in the landfill bin (red lid).

Yes - put them in your yellow-lid recycling bin.

New processors are now operating in Australia that can separate the cardboard from the plastic and foil lining so they can be recycled separately.

Put cardboard cartons from these products in your recycling bin:

 Long-life milk
 Alternative milks e.g. soy, almond, oat etc.
 Lactose-free milk
 Liquid stock e.g. vegetable, beef, chicken
 Fruit juice
 Up-n-go milk (no straws)
 Coconut water
 Ice cream cartons
 Tetrapak cartons for milk & juice

These cardboard containers are NOT accepted in the recycling bin:

 Disposable coffee cups
 Disposable coffee cup lids
 Soft drink cups (like those from fast-food outlets)
 Clear plastic cups
 Polystyrene cups
 Instant noodle cups

It depends on the size of the lid, and the type of material it’s made from.

  Beer bottle caps
           Put them in the recycling bin. They are small, but magnets will pick them up off the sorting line.

  Large plastic lids
           Put these in your recycling bin. Lids larger than a credit card and stamped with the number 1, 2 or 5 inside a triangle can be recycled.

  Wine & spirit bottle screw tops
           Put these in your recycling bin. Specialist sorting equipment at the recycling facility creates a magnetic field for aluminium, so the screw tops are picked up off the sorting line.

  Small plastic lids
           Put them in your landfill bin. Lids smaller than a credit card, like from milk, juice and soft drink bottles, can get stuck and jam the sorting machines.