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A-Z guide to waste and recycling

This guide will help you determine the best way to dispose of unwanted items, and easily identify which items can be recycled or recovered.

 Please select the relevant letter to search for your item.

Aerosol cans

Air conditioners (split systems)

Aluminium foil, trays & cans

  • Put in your recycling bin. Collect foil until you can make a ball about the size of a lemon.
  • Take to the recycling bins at Wollert Landfill for free recycling.
  • Aluminium ring pulls – recommend that residents don’t fully remove the ring pull as it gets recycled as a whole can. Aluminium Can Recycling - Planet Ark Recycling Near You

Asbestos

  • Is accepted at Wollert Landfill however you must meet EPA guidelines when transporting and removing asbestos

Ash

  • Let cool, then put on your garden or in your home compost bin
  • Let cool, bag and place in garbage bin

Baking tray

Balls (basket balls, volley balls, footballs)

  • Take to a Rebel Sports stores

Balloons

  • Put in your rubbish bin
  • Please do not use balloons outdoors. Use flags, bubbles, bunting or banners instead. Council run community events are balloon free. For more information see Melbourne Zoo

Bassinettes (suitable for reuse, less than 10 years old)

Bassinettes (old or damaged)

Batteries - household

  • To find your closest drop off location see bcycle.com.au  Woolworths, Aldi, Battery World, Bunnings and Officeworks stores may accept batteries for recycling
  • Take to Wollert Landfill for free recycling
  • Take to Hume City Council Resource Recovery Centre Campbellfield
  • Take to Darebin Resource Recovery Centre
  • Take to Banyule Waste Recovery Centre
    Australia’s national product stewardship scheme for battery recycling has commenced and it is called B-cycle. This scheme provides convenient, safe, and free (except for some commercial services) battery recycling options. 

    B-cycle will ensure the production, distribution, and recycling of batteries is managed sustainably in Australia. The program will manage a voluntary group of battery retailers, importers, and producers who are taking responsibility for these products.

Batteries - mobile phone

Bike

Biscuit trays (not including the soft plastic packaging on the outside)

Blankets

Bottles (glass and plastic)

  • Put plastic bottles in your recycling bin. Please remove the lids and put the lids in the rubbish bin
  • Put glass bottles into your glass recycling bin. Please remove lids and place them in the rubbish bin. 

Bottle lids 

Bread Bag Tags (Plastic only – NOT cardboard)

Bricks 

Building and renovation material

Cameras including accessories

Cans (aluminium, steel & tin)

Car batteries

Car engines

  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday - 8am to 4pm, Saturday - 8am to 12.30pm
  • Take to a car scrap recycler

Car parts

  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday - 8am to 4pm, Saturday - 8am to 12.30pm
  • Take to a car scrap recycler

Cardboard

  • Put in your recycling bin
  • Take to Wollert Landfill for free recycling
  • Take to Visy Pty Ltd, 13 Reo Crescent, Campbellfield between 7am-7pm (open daily)

Carpet and underlay

CDs & DVDs

Ceramic plates & dishes

Chemical drums (empty) – crop and farm chemicals

Chemicals - household cleaning, garden and automotive

Child car restraints (suitable for reuse, less than 10 years old)

Child car restraints (old or damaged)

Christmas tree

Cigarette butts

Clothing (suitable for reuse)

Clothing (not suitable for reuse)

Coat hangers

  • If metal - take to the Wollert landfill (free disposal), or put in the red lidded garbage bin
  • If plastic, wooden or fabric - put in the red lidded garbage bin

Coffee cups - takeaway

Coffee grounds

Coffee pods

Column heater - oil based

  • Scrap metal merchants 

Computers, printers & accessories

You can take your broken desktop PCs, laptops, printers, scanners, monitors, hard drives, CD/DVD drives, keyboards, mice, power supplies, memory cards and floppy disks to:

Concrete

Cooking oil (used)

Cooking oil containers

Coolant

Copper & electrical cable

Corks from bottles

  • Put in your rubbish bin. Cork is no longer recycled within Victoria.

Cots (suitable for reuse, less than 10 years old)

Cots (old or damaged)

Cups (ceramic, glass & polystyrene)

Cups (paper)

Cutlery (metal/plastic)

  • Donate metal cutlery in good condition to charity.
  • Dispose of metal or plastic cutlery in your rubbish bin.

Dishwasher

  • Scrap metal merchants
  • Transfer station at Wollert Landfill
  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Dog droppings

Egg cartons

E-waste (any household appliance with a plug, cord or battery)

E-waste can no longer be accepted in any bin or picked up through Council's hard waste collection service.

  • Before you dispose of your electrical items, see if you can get it repaired at the Mernda Repair Café
  • Free e-waste drop off points

Take any household electrical items, such as televisions, computers, tablets, printers, vacuum cleaners, toasters, hair dryers, video and DVD players, electrical tools, electronic toys or electronic cigarettes to the designated e-waste recycling skips at:

  • Transfer Station at Wollert Landfill
  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd, 304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown. Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Free whitegoods drop-off

You can drop off large household appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, dish washers, microwaves, etc, at either of the above two locations, or at:

Scrap metal merchants

Recycling Stations

Take cameras, mobile phones, household batteries, CDs, DVDs, fluorescent light globes, printer cartridges, X-rays and small electrical appliances like IPods, electric tooth brushes and calculators to one of our Recycling Stations. 

Electronic Cigarettes

You can drop off these items for free at:

  • Transfer Station at Wollert Landfill or
  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd 304-308Mahoneys Road, Thomastown Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Face masks

Fence palings

  • Take natural or stained wood fence palings (not painted) to the Timber waste recycling facility in Epping - charges apply or you can use your timber waste voucher on your rates notice

Fertilisers

Fire extinguishers

Fluorescent light globes

Foil

Food scraps

Fridges

  • Scrap metal merchants
  • Transfer station at Wollert Landfill
  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomatown
    Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Fuels (petrol, diesel and kerosene)

Furniture (not suitable for reuse)

Garden waste

Gas bottles

Glass bottles and jars

Glass waste and ceramics (including crockery, drinking glasses, Pyrex glass, ovenware, window glass, mirrors and light bulbs)

Glasses – sighted and reading (not broken)

Gloves

Glues

Helium gas tank

Herbicides and weed killers

Hot water service unit

Hand towel

  • Put in your rubbish bin

High chair (suitable for reuse, less than 10 years old)                               

  • Donate good quality baby and children's equipment and clothing to Big Group Hug

Ice-cream containers

Insulation (Fibreglass, wool, and cellulose)

IPods, iPhones and iPads

Irons (household)

Jewellery

Kitchen sponges

Kitty litter

Laptop computers

Take to:

Lawn clippings

Lids (from plastic or glass bottles)

Light bulbs (incandescent)

Light bulbs (including fluorescent globes, compact fluorescent globes, high-intensity discharge lamps and LEDs)

Liquid soap and moisturiser pump packs

Margarine containers

Mattresses

Medicines

  • Return to your local pharmacy

Metal waste

Microwaves

  • Scrap metal merchants
  • Transfer station at Wollert Landfill
  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Milk and juice cartons (including liquid paperboard and Tetra Paks)

  • Put in your rubbish bin

Mirrors (broken)

Mobile phones including accessories

Motor oil

MP3 players and personal music players

Nappies

  • Put in your rubbish bin. Dispose of poo into the toilet.

Needles

Newspaper

Office products

Ovens (rangehoods, cook tops, and hot plates)

  • Scrap metal merchants

Paint and empty paint tins

Pallets

Paper

  • Put in your recycling bin (put small pieces of paper - less than 7.5cm long and wide - in an envelope or paper bag first). Please note tissues, tissue paper, hand towel and shopping receipts cannot be recycled.
  • Take to Wollert Landfill for free recycling
  • Take to Visy Coolaroo Office, 13 Reo Crescent, Campbellfield

Paper (shredded)

Paper towel (soiled)

Pen and markers

  • Return to Officeworks for recycling

Phones (mobile)

Pizza boxes

  • Put in your recycling bin - remove any food residue from the box.   

Plant pots

Plastic bags

  • Put in your rubbish bin.
  • Return to any Coles or Woolworths supermarket to be recycled. Visit the REDcycle website for a full list of what can be recycled. *Please note that soft plastics collections have been temporarily paused by RedCycle. 

Plastic containers & bottles (including plastic takeaway food containers), labelled 1,2,3,4 or 5

Plastics (soft plastics including cling wrap, bubble wrap, biscuit packets, lolly bags, pasta bags, frozen food bags and soft plastic packaging)

  • Put in your rubbish bin.
  • Return to any Coles or Woolworths supermarket to be recycled. Visit the REDcycle website for a full list of what can be recycled. *Please note that soft plastics collections have been temporarily paused by RedCycle.

Polystyrene packaging

Polystyrene trays

Pool chemicals

Prams/strollers (suitable for reuse, less than 10 years old)  

Prams/strollers (old or damaged)

Printers and accessories

Take to:

Printer cartridges and toner cartridges

Quilt covers

RAT - Rapid Antigen Test kits

Receipts

Refrigerators

  • Scrap metal merchants
  • Transfer station at Wollert Landfill
  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Sanitary products

Scrap metal

Sheets and pillow cases (not suitable for reuse)

Shampoo and conditioner bottles

Shoes (including sneakers)

Shopping receipts

Shredded paper

Smoke alarms

Soil and rocks

Soft plastic packaging (such as bags, bubble wrap, and food/cling wrap)

  • Do the scrunch test - if it is clean, plastic and easily scrunched into a ball like a chip packet or glad wrap then it is soft plastic. 
  • Put in your rubbish bin
  • Return to any Coles or Woolworths supermarket to be recycled. Visit the REDcycle website for a full list of what can be recycled. *Please note that soft plastics collections have been temporarily paused by RedCycle. 

Straws (plastic disposable)

Syringes

Tea bags

Television

Take to:

TetraPak (such as milk and juice cartons)

Timber

Tissues

Tissue paper

Toasters

Drop off for free to:

  • Transfer station at Wollert Landfill

  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Towels (not suitable for reuse)

Toys (unsuitable for reuse)

  • Return to a Big W store. Visit the Toys for joy website to find out more about the program and to find your local store.
  • Put small toys in your rubbish bin
  • Larger toys can be booked in for a kerbside hard waste collection

Tyres

  • Contact your local tyre store and ask them if they will accept your unwanted tyres for recycling
  • Take to Wollert Landfill for recycling (charges apply)

Vacuum cleaners

Drop off for free to:

  • Transfer station at Wollert Landfill

  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Vape (electronic cigarettes)

  • Take to one of our recycling stations
  • Take to one or the free e-waste drop off points:
  • Transfer Station at Wollert Landfill or
  • SRS Metals Pty Ltd 304-308Mahoneys Road, Thomastown Open Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm and Saturday, 8am - 12.30pm

Video/VHS cassettes

Water bottles (up to 15L)

Waxed paper and cardboard

Weeds (common)

Whitegoods (microwaves, fridges, washing machines, dishwashers and clothes driers)

Take to:

  • Scrap metal merchants
  • SRM Metals Pty Ltd
    304-308 Mahoneys Road, Thomastown
    Open Monday to Friday, 8am-4pm and Saturday, 8am-12.30pm
  • Transfer station at Wollert Landfill

Window glass

Wrap in newspaper, bag and then:

Wipes - for babies, hands and face

Work boots

Work Boots – donate your old work boots here.

X-rays

Yoghurt tubs