Recycling, Garbage and Greenwaste bins

What to put in your bins

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Garbage - Red lid

Everything placed in your red lid garbage bin is sent to landfill where it stays forever. A garbage bin is best used as a ‘last resort’ – for items that cannot be recycled.

What goes in your red lid bin:

• Plastic bags, plastic packets and other soft plastic wrap
• Nappies
• Waxed cardboard including milk cartons
• Food waste (if you don't compost) 
• Polystyrene
• Broken glassware and ceramics
• Old clothing and shoes not worthy of donation
• Takeaway coffee cups
• Other non-recyclable, non-hazardous materials

Did you know? Plastic bags, plastic packets and other soft plastic wrap can be taken to participating Coles and Woolworths for specialised recycling through the redcycle program.

Recycling - Yellow lid 

Recyclables collected from households and transfer stations are taken to Cleanaway in Laverton for sorting. Your recycling bin is for food and drink containers and some household packaging:

• Glass bottles and jars
• Hard plastic bottles and containers numbered #1, #2 and #5. 
• Steel and aluminium cans (including empty aerosol cans).
• Clean aluminium foil bunched to the size of a tennis ball.
• Paper and cardboard. No waxed paper/cardboard.

Remember: If in doubt - leave it out!

Contamination

The wrong items in the recycling bin are called 'contamination'. The most common contaminants in Moorabool’s bins are:

Recyclables in bags – Recyclables must be loose in the recycling bin –  never in plastic bags. Our recycling facility does not open bags for safety reasons -  any bagged recyclable material ends up in landfill.

Nappies, food and green waste – These items don’t belong in the recycling bin - they contaminate clean recyclables. Your entire bin of recyclables will end up in landfill as a result.

Soft Plastics and Plastic Bags  – These get tangled in the machinery at the sorting facility.  They also mix with paper and cardboard meaning less chance of materials being onsold for reprocessing.   Instead, take soft plastics to REDcycle Bin at your nearest participating supermarket.

Electronic items such as TV’s and computers – Most of these items are recyclable, but not through your home recycling bin.  Take your electronic items to your nearest transfer station 

Hazardous items such as batteries and globes – These items are recyclable, but not through your home recycling bin.  Take your household batteries and globes to your nearest transfer station 

Dirty or full containers - Rinse containers before placing them into your recycling bin. Make sure no food or liquids are in bottles or containers. When the truck collects recycling, it compacts all the materials. Any food or liquids will seep into paper and cardboard and contaminate it.

Lids – Remove lids from plastic bottles and place into your red lidded garbage bin. Steel lids from glass jars can be recycled if collected in a steel can (e.g. baked beans can) and the can squashed closed and put in the recycling bin

The recycling process

What happens to your recycling once collected? Check out Sustainability Victoria's overview of the recycling process.

Greenwaste - lime green lid

Council offers households an opt-in fortnightly collection service for greenwaste in Bacchus Marsh, Darley, Maddingley, Hopetoun Park, and Ballan (township). 

Greenwaste is taken to Pinegro right here in the Shire. It is turned into a compost available at hardware stores.

To subscribe, you will need to purchase a 240 litre bin with a lime green lid from Council. If you wish to opt-out, notify us in writing.

Waste service charges / costs for bins

This table provides a summary of Moorabool Shire Council's waste service charges and cost of bins. This information is updated every financial year. 

Need to order a new bin?

Complete a Waste Service Application Form