Our household waste service

Our standard service

We introduced our standard household waste service after two years of research. This involved extensive discussion with the local community.

Our standard waste service is made up of the following kerbside collections:

• Garbage collection every week (140 litre bin) – your RED garbage bin
• Recycling collection every two weeks (240 litre bin) – your YELLOW recycling bin
• Green waste collection every two weeks (240 litre bin) – your GREEN garden bin. 

Council's household waste service is a NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) recommended best practice waste service.

If the standard service does not suit your household, alternative bin sizes include:

• Large Garbage Service (240 litre red garbage bin with standard size yellow and green bins) 
• Small Recycling Service (140 litre yellow recycling bin with standard size red and green bins) 
• Large Recycling Service (360 litre yellow recycling bin with standard size red and green bins)
• Large Garbage and Large Recycling Service (240 litre red garbage bin and 360 litre yellow recycling bin with standard size green bin) 

For more information you can download the Domestic Waste Service: Bin Form from the bottom of this page.

As well as our weekly kerbside collection service, we have many other services available to deal with all types of waste.

Your bin collection days

We’re making it easier for residents to reduce rubbish, sort waste properly and recycle more.

Bin collection calendar

Click here for your personalised bin collection calendar.

Blue Mountains Waste App

You can also download our FREE Blue Mountains Waste App to access:

• Your personalised bin collection calendar with bin day reminders.
• A quick guide to our bin system, and an A-Z list of materials and how to dispose of them.
• Information about Council’s services and waste facilities, including maps and directions.
• Frequently asked questions and contact details.
• Optional notifications to find out the latest waste information from Council.

• Click to download the IOS app

• Click to download the Android app

Tips to ‘get it right on bin night’

Your household bin collection takes place on the same day every week.

Each week you will take out two bins. Your red garbage bin with either your green garden bin OR your yellow recycling bin. This is because recycling and garden waste collections take place on alternate weeks.

Check the sticker on the side of your green garden bin to see if it is a Week A or Week B collection. You can reference this against the bin collection calendar.

Make sure your bins are on the kerb by 5am on your collection day and stay out until emptied.

Download our bin collection calendar or call us on (02) 4780 5000 to find out your collection day.

Check the illustration below for tips to 'get it right on bin night'. Otherwise the trucks may not be able to empty your bins.

Should you require assistance to have household bins wheeled to and from kerbside for collection, for mobility and/or medical reasons please contact Council on 4780 5000 for more information.

Your RED garbage bin

Your red bin is for your weekly kerbside garbage collection. We’ve recently reduced the size of the red garbage bin as this is the waste that goes to landfill.

Regular bin audits show us:

• 26% of the waste thrown in the red bin could be composted at home
• 16% is recyclable if sorted into the right bin. (The yellow bin for recyclables or the green bin for garden vegetation).

We want to encourage residents to view their red bin as a last resort.

If you have considered the following options, and landfill is the only way to go, then place the waste in your red bin.

• REDUCE: Consider the amount of packaging before you buy a product. Use fabric carry bags and produce bags instead of using plastic.
• REUSE: After you’ve used a product, can you reuse the packaging eg glass jars or plastic cartons? Can you start composting food scraps and reuse them as fertiliser on your garden?
• RECYCLE Place all rigid plastics, glass, metal and paper in your yellow recycling bin.

Your YELLOW recycling bin

Your yellow bin is for your kerbside recycling, collected every fortnight. This is for all household recyclable packaging.

Please note each local Council may accept different items for recycling.

In the Blue Mountains, the following items CAN go in your yellow recycling bin:

• Steel and aluminium cans
• Empty aerosol cans
• Glass bottles and jars with lids removed
• Metal and plastic lids (keep like with like, e.g. plastic lids on plastic bottles, collect metal lids in metal cans)
• Paper and cardboard (remove plastic wrapping from newspapers and magazines)
• Milk and juice cartons
• Empty and RIGID plastic household containers from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry,  such as single use plastic bottles, sushi and sandwich containers, take away containers, hard plastic meat trays, yoghurt and dip tubs, berry punnets and biscuit trays (not wrappers).

These items CAN’T go in your yellow recycling bin:

• Plastic bags (never bag your recycling in plastic)
• Plastic wrap (please remove any plastic wrap from newspapers or magazines)
• Food scraps or food soiled paper
• Garden vegetation
• Light globes
• Polystyrene
• Windows, mirrors or broken glass
• Hazardous materials such as electronics, batteries, chemicals or mobile phones

Call the recycling hotline for more 1300 769 746.

What about the new return and earn scheme?

The NSW Government’s largest litter reduction scheme ‘Return and Earn’ started on 1 December, 2017. The Container Deposit Scheme enables people to ‘return and earn’ by returning used beverage containers to nominated collection points to receive a 10c return per container.

You can continue to place your drink containers in your yellow lid bin for recycling as usual. Kerbside recycling remains very important to our community. Return and Earn is designed to complement kerbside recycling by reducing litter and encouraging people to recycle drink containers when away from home.

Please note - if you put your eligible containers in your household recycling bin, you won’t receive the NSW Government’s 10 cent refund.

For more information about the scheme please visit Return and earn.

Your GREEN garden bin

Your green bin is for your fortnightly kerbside garden vegetation collection. This is for any garden vegetation you can’t use or compost at home such as grass clippings, weeds and prunings.

In the Blue Mountains, the following items CAN go in your green bin:

• Grass clippings
• Weeds (including noxious weeds)
• Cut flowers
• Leaves
• Garden pruning
• Branches (max. length 40cm, diameter 10cm)
• Bark
• Palm fronds
• Sticks.

These items CAN’T go in your green bin:

• Food waste
• Plastic bags or bin liners
• Garbage
• Pots
• Soil
• Bricks
• Tree stumps
• Armillaria luteobubalina, known as the Australian honey fungus (and any other associated plant material) - This material must go in the garbage bin or to the sealed garbage area of the waste facility. This includes all tree parts, mulch and soil from gardens where it has been found.

Call the garden waste hotline for more 1300 769 746.

Additional Options Trial - Weekly Green Bins

From 1 July 2022, Council will be trialing several additional waste and recycling services.

This is to provide initiatives that allow more flexibility and convenience around our existing waste and recycling services and to support everyone to prepare for the bushfire season. Council is supporting everyone to prepare by providing a chipping service in August and weekly green bin collection in September. Council is also providing an option for facility drop off for bulky household waste.

During the month of September, every household will be receiving two extra collections, making it a weekly green bin service from Monday, 5 September 2022 to Friday, 30 September.