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.
When is my recycling bin collected?
Council collects your recycling bin each week on the same day as your rubbish bin. Rubbish and recycling bins are usually collected in the morning or early afternoon.
What day?
The day of rubbish collection depends on where you live.
- The Garbage and recyclable collection locality map (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) lists every street in Moreland and its waste collection day.
Rubbish, recycling and green waste calendar
Council’s rubbish, recycling and green waste collection calendar lists the dates that Council collects your bins. Waste calendars are available on Council's Rubbish collection page for download and print.
New recycling contract
Residents can now recycle many new items in their recycling bin. Council's new recycling processor, Polytrade, is able to accept plastic bags, plastic wrap, polystyrene packaging as well as metal pots, pans and cutlery.
Get it Right on Bin Night
Victorians are great recyclers but we can improve. Research shows that many household rubbish bins contain up to 20 per cent of items that could have been recycled. This equates to around 450,000 wheelie bins full of recycling ending up in landfill each week.
To make the products and packaging we use and throw out everyday, raw materials, energy and water are required. Each item we recycle means fewer resources are used to make new products and packaging.
Visit the Get it Right on Bin Night website to find out how to recycle right in every room of the house.
What goes in your recycling bin
- plastic bags - NEW
- polystyrene packaging - NEW
- plastic packaging, including flexible plastics such as bags and wrap - NEW
- metal pots, pans and cutlery - NEW
- 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)
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.
Remove lids from bottles and jars and throw them in the recycling bin too. Be aware that although you can now recycle plastic bags and wrap they must be placed separately to other items. Do not bag your recyclables as the entire bag will be sent to landfill.
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 booklet (PDF 4Mb).
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 to your recycling
After collection recyclables are sorted at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). In Moreland recycling is taken to the Polytrade MRF in Coburg. Sorting is done by machinery and by hand. 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.
Visit the MRF and find out what happens to your recyclables!
Residents now have the opportunity to visit the MRF to learn what happens to your recyclables once you throw them away. The visit explains how things are sorted and recycled and how items then go on to be made into new products, demonstrating how recycling correctly can make a huge difference to the whole process. Community visits will be held twice a year, during mid year school holidays and National Recycling Week in November. Visit the website or check the local paper for dates. Schools can arrange visits by calling Council to make a booking.
Recycling bin too small?
If you find you have more recycling than will fit in your recycling bin each week Council will consider providing a second recycling bin. Before you contact Coucil to request an additional recycling bin consider what you are currently putting in your recycling bin.
Ask yourself:
- Is everything in my recycling bin recyclable?
- Is there anything in my recycling bin that should go in the rubbish bin?
- Is there anything that I can flatten such as cardboard boxes, cans or plastic bottles so that they take up less room in the recycling bin?
Consider also if there is any way you can reduce the amount of recycling you are producing, because while it is better to recycle than to send something to landfill, it is even better to avoid waste in the first place. Consider buying products in bulk and reusing/refilling containers. Another way to cut down on packaging is to buy concentrated cleaning products rather than ready made items.
If you still find you require additional recycling capacity contact Council for a request form. Requests will be considered on a case by case basis.
Damaged, lost or stolen bins
See the waste collection services page for information on how to have your recycling bin repaired or replaced.
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.
