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 need more bins you can also apply for an additional blue landfill bin, yellow recycling bin or green bin. Last April and May green bins were delivered to residents who registered for one. If you missed out more free green bins will be available from May 2024.
Find out more about our free green bins and kitchen caddies
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:
- Food waste
- Green waste drop-off facility
- Tricky waste including electronic waste
- Hard rubbish collection
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. You can also download the 2024 waste and recycling collection calendar.
Download the My Local Services app
Download the 2024 waste and recycling collection calendar
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)
- Clothing, footwear and textiles (If these are in good condition, consider donating to a charity shop. 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 or batteries (find out where you can recycle e-waste)
- 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
- CD and DVD cases (remove disc, plastic sleeve and paper cover)
- 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 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
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 2024 waste and recycling collection calendar.
Bin collections will be delayed over Easter and Christmas, but continue as normal on most other public holidays. Download the 2024 waste and recycling collection calendar for public holiday collection dates.
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.
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.
Last April and May green bins were delivered to residents. If you missed out, more free green bins will be available from May 2024.
For more information read our FAQs or call us 1300 133 466.
If you can't wait for a free bin you can purchase a green bin from local hardware stores. Green bins must be 240L.
If your blue, yellow or green bin is damaged or has been stolen we will replace or repair it. You'll need to fill in a damaged, stolen or replacement bin form or call us on 1300 133 466.
If your green bin does not have the City of Mitcham logo on the front then it is your property. If it's lost, stolen, or damaged the City of Mitcham provides green bins to households.
If your green bin has been accidentally damaged by the waste truck please call East Waste on 8347 5111.
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.
If you’ve read about the China Sword Waste Policy and the impact it’s having on the global recycling market, and wondering if it’s still worth recycling, the answer is: absolutely.
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.