About your bins

How to use your blue landfill bin, yellow recycling bin and green bin in the City of Mitcham, plus bin collection days, answers to common waste questions and how to report bin issues.

Waste and recycling services in City of Mitcham

We provide a kerbside landfill, recycling and green organics collection service. Each household is provided a 140L blue landfill bin, a 240L yellow recycling bin, and a 240L green bin as part of this service. If you have just moved in or don't have all three bins, you can request a new bin from East Waste.

Separating your waste properly can be a lot to get your head around. This page explains what waste to put in your blue landfill bin, your yellow recycling bin and your green bin. For other waste, visit:

Make a general enquiry about bins or waste services

Bin collection

We collect the blue landfill bin weekly. East Waste collects the yellow recycling and green bins on alternating weeks. This means one week will be blue and yellow; the next, blue and green.

You can download the My Local Services app to get a friendly reminder of which bins to put out each week.

Download the My Local Services app

Download the 2026 waste and recycling collection calendar

Putting your bins out

To help us collect your waste please:

Place your bin on the verge by 6am on the day of collection or the night before.
Don’t put your bin out earlier than the night before collection.
Make sure the front of the bin is facing the road and it's placed right next to the kerb.
Bring your bin back in on the same day, or by 11:59pm the next day at the latest.

What to put in 'Which Bin'

You can find lists of which bin to put your waste in below. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, or you’d like more information, visit Which Bin SA for a comprehensive list.

Visit Which Bin SA

Blue landfill bin

Put these into your blue landfill bin:

Any general household rubbish that can’t go in your yellow recycling bin or green bin
Polystyrene (meat trays, foam cups and packaging material): Remember to break it into smaller pieces to prevent it from getting stuck in your bin.
Clothing, footwear and textiles (If these are in good condition, consider donating to a charity shop or giving away through local buy nothing groups. Some clothing and textile brands are introducing recycling options in partnership with Upperel. Unwearable clothing can also be donated to SCR Group, where it will be reused, turned into rags or converted into an alternative fuel.)
Kitty litter
Single use nappies
Broken crockery and glassware
Wine bladders
Ropes and hoses
Soft plastics (such as reusable green bags, produce bags, bread bags, biscuit and confectionery packaging, rice and pasta packets and frozen food bags).

Don’t put these in your blue landfill bin:

No cooking or motor oil
No liquid paint
No tyres
No e-waste (find out where you can recycle e-waste)
No loose batteries or embedded battery operated items
No building materials, dirt or rocks
No chemicals or poisons
No hazardous materials (find out where you can take hazardous waste)

Yellow recycling bin

Put these into your yellow recycling bin:

Paper and cardboard (for food-stained cardboard, like pizza boxes, use your green bin)
Aluminium (collect up into a ball about the size of your fist)
Hard plastic (do the scrunch test)
Steel/tin
Glass
Plastic storage containers, including Tupperware
Plastic lids (placed on plastic bottles)
Plastic plant pots
Biscuit trays
Empty aerosol cans
Empty medicine and vitamin bottles

Don’t put these in your yellow recycling bin:

No plastic bags (if you’ve collected recycling in plastic bags, empty out the recycling and put the bags in the blue general waste bin)
No electronic waste (more info on electronic waste here)
No loose batteries or embedded battery operated items
No food (more info on food waste here)
No nappies
No liquids
No garden (organic) material (more info on green waste here)
No clothing or fabric
No general waste
No polystyrene/foam
No bricks and building materials
No furniture or homewares (more info on hard rubbish here)
No shredded paper
No wire, strapping and hoses

It really helps if you rinse off and empty recyclable containers of food, liquids and other contaminants as much as you can. If recycling materials are too contaminated, they may be too difficult to sort and end up in landfill anyway.

Green bin

Put these into your green bin:

You can use your green bin for more than just your garden clippings and plant waste. All organic material can go into your green bin, including:

Food waste (including meat and seafood)
Food-stained pizza boxes
Shredded paper
Paper towel and tissues
Lunch bags and paper muffin cases
Pet waste
Charcoal and ash
Human and pet hair
Post-it notes

Find out how to put food waste to good use

Excess garden material can be taken to Lynton green organics drop-off facility.

Don’t put these in your green bin:

No plastic bags or wrapping
No plastic packaged food
No batteries or e-waste
No chemicals or poisons
No general waste
No polystyrene or foam
No nappies
No ropes or hoses
No plastic pots, containers or bottles
No painted or treated wood
No building materials, rocks or dirt
No clothing, footwear or textiles

Commonly asked bin questions

When is my bin collected?

Use the map below to find out your collection day or download the My Local Services app to get a friendly reminder each week. You can also download the 2026 waste and recycling collection calendar.

What happens to my bins on public holidays?

Bin collections will be delayed over Christmas, but continue as normal on most other public holidays. Download the 2026 waste and recycling calendar for public holiday collection dates.

What happens to my bins on catastrophic and extreme risk fire days?

We won't collect domestic waste bin (blue lid), green bin (green lid) and recycling bin (yellow lid) on catastrophic fire risk days in the high fire risk area. You should leave your bins out until we reschedule our services. If there are several catastrophic fire danger rating days forecasted, or running one after the other, we'll collect your bins at the lowest risk times.

If it’s safe for our drivers and community, we’ll collect your rubbish bin, green bin and recycling bin on extreme fire risk days. Your usual waste collection time may change, but it’s important to put your bins out by 6am and leave your bins out until we collect them.

Collection services in all parts of the City of Mitcham may be affected by a Catastrophic or Extreme Fire Danger Day. We’ll work hard to get back to the normal bin collection schedule as soon as possible. In these circumstances, leave your bins out until they can be collected.

My bin wasn’t picked up – what should I do?

If your blue landfill bin wasn’t emptied on collection day, please fill out the missed bin collection form. You can also give us a call on 1300 133 466.

If your yellow recycling or green bin weren’t collected, call East Waste on 8347 5111 or email east@eastwaste.com.

If your missed bin collection relates to an unoccupied premises, it is not eligible for Council’s waste collection services. Council provides a weekly collection of household waste and a fortnightly collection of recycling and organic waste. These services are available only for occupied properties.

I’d like a green bin

We now provide green bins, just like the blue and yellow bins. If you don't have a green bin, request a new bin from East Waste.

My bin is damaged or has been stolen - how do I get a replacement?

If your blue, yellow or green bin has been accidentally damaged we will repair or replace it, request a bin repair or call East Waste on 8347 5111.

If your blue, yellow or green bin has gone missing or been stolen we will replace it. You'll need to complete a missing or stolen bin form or call East Waste on 8347 5111.

How else can I dispose of my green organic waste?

You can get rid of your green waste at the Lynton green organics drop-off facility which is open 9am to 3pm on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Saturday of each month (except for public holidays), as well as on some Mondays throughout the bushfire season.

Our commitment to diverting waste from landfill

We’re passionate about reusing and extracting value from waste before it’s sent to landfill, and are committed to increasing both resource recovery and community knowledge of responsible waste management.

Recycling is so important for the environment, and we’re committed to finding even more sustainable and cost-effective solutions by working closely with East Waste, the waste industry and State and Federal governments.