Recycling collection

Council collects recycling bins every week from all homes and units in Moreland.

Council also collects recycling bins from rateable non-residential properties subject to the payment of the waste charge.

Your recycling bin is dark green with a yellow lid.

Kerbside recycling contamination reduction program

Council is undertaking a program to reduce the level of contamination (items that cannot be recycled) in kerbside recycling bins and to provide assistance to residents who are unsure of Council’s recycling guidelines.

Currently contamination in residential recycling bins in Moreland is 17% whereas the state average is only 10%. Council pays a penalty fee for contaminated recyclables making the cost of the service more expensive. The main contaminants found in recycling bins in Moreland are plastic bags and recyclables in plastic bags.

Contamination not only increases the cost of the service it also has the potential to pose health and safety risks at the Materials Recovery Facility, damage machinery, result in whole truck loads of recyclables being sent to landfill and can lead to faulty end-products if not removed through the sorting process.

Council will be inspecting 10,000 recycling bins between September and December 2009.

Households that are identified as having only mildly contaminated bins (containing less than three non-recyclable items) will be issued with a notice and a sticker advising them of what they need to do to recycle correctly and their bin will be collected on this occasion.

Households with badly contaminated bins (containing hazardous items, rubbish, plastic bags, recyclables in plastic bags or more than three non-recyclable items) will be issued with a notice and a sticker advising them of what they need to do to recycle correctly and their bin will not be collected. Residents will need to remove the contaminants before contacting Council to arrange an alternative collection date.

Check the information below to ensure you are putting the right materials in your recycling bin.

When is my recycling bin collected?

Council collects your recycling bin each week on the same day as your rubbish bin. The bins are usually collected before midday.

What day?

The day of rubbish collection depends on where you live.

• The Garbage and recyclable collection locality map (PDF 70Kb) (PDF 70Kb) shows when recycling is collected in different areas of Moreland. It lists main roads only.
• The Waste collection day list by suburb and street (PDF 72Kb) (PDF 72Kb) lists every street in Moreland and its waste collection day.  

2009 rubbish, recycling and green waste calendar

Council’s rubbish, recycling and green waste calendar lists the dates that Council collects your bins. New calendars for 2009 were delivered to all residents in December 2008.

• Choose a 2009 rubbish, recycling and green waste calendar for your part of Moreland.
• Contact Council if you did not get one in your mailbox or pick one up from a Citizens Service Centre.

What goes in your recycling bin

• glass bottles and jars (clear, green and amber)
• steel and aluminium cans
• aluminium foil (clean - no food waste)
• milk and juice cartons
• rigid plastic bottles and containers with the codes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 
• newspaper and office paper
• cardboard
• pizza boxes (clean - no food waste)
• phone books 
• books (with covers removed)
  
  

• Please note that recyclables must be free of food waste but it is not neccessary to wash your recyclables, a rinse in your washing up water once you have done your dishes should be sufficient.

• Please also note that products made from plolystyrene (code 6 EPS) are not accepted in the kerbside recycling. Check the A-Z guide to waste and recycling for information on where to recycle polystyrene.

Other recycling

Council's online A - Z guide to recycling tells you how to recycle many products that cannot be accepted in the kerbside collection. You can also download a PDF version of the new A-Z of waste reduction in Moreland (PDF 4Mb) booklet.

Some transfer stations and landfills recycle products and materials including:

• motor oil and car batteries
• white goods like old washing machines and freezers
• garden waste
• bottles, cans, newspapers and cardboard.

Some items can be recycled free of charge, however, some charges may apply.

What happens with your recycling

After collection recyclables are sorted at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). In Moreland recycling is taken to the SKM Recycling MRF in Coolaroo. Sorting is done by machinery. Large contaminants are removed by hand as the materials travel across conveyor belts.  

Paper, newspaper and cardboard are separated from bottles and cans.  Paper is then sorted into different categories and sent to manufacturers across Australia and made into new paper and cardboard items. Plastics are sorted into polymer type, baled and returned to factories for reprocessing.

Products made from recycled plastic include: mobile garbage bins, compost bins, fleece jackets, bottles, packaging and plastic bags.

It takes 25 two litre PET (code 1) bottles to make one fleece jacket and 125 plastic milk bottles to make one 120 litre mobile garbage bin.

For more information on the sorting and processing of recyclables in Moreland please visit the SKM website.

Council buys recycled

Council is committed to buying recycled products and buying back the recycling that it collects.

For example, Council prints all waste and recycling brochures and calendars on recycled paper. Council recycling bins are made from recycled plastic. Council sells compost bins made from recycled plastic.