Keep your recycling clean

Did you know it’s important to remove excess food and liquid from your recycling to make sure we can recycle it?

Food, liquids and other items (like cigarette butts) left inside recyclable containers can spill onto other items in your recycling bin, inside the collection truck and at the recycling facility. This reduces the quality of materials, particularly the paper and cardboard, and causes problems during the recycling process.

When you empty your recyclables before you put them in the bin, you help keep everything clean so more items can be made into new products. Emptying the bottles and containers first also helps avoid smells and pests in your recycling bin.

Your recyclables don’t need to be spotless, just clean and dry enough so that nothing can spill onto other materials. Simply remove the lids, empty the bottles, and scrape out jars and containers.

Remember, put your recyclables in the bin loose, not in plastic bags.

Visit surfcoast.vic.gov.au/recycling to check what's accepted in your recycling bin.