Food and garden waste services

In the interim, organic material such as garden waste can be placed in your red-lidded waste bin. Organic material is captured and processed at a waste treatment facility called Eastern Creek Operations. The facility processes food scraps and garden waste to produce a stabilised waste before disposal. It contributes to our 40% resource recovery rate.

Large amounts of garden waste can be disposed of through a household clean up (limit of 12 per household per year). For more information on the household clean up and to make a booking, visit our household clean up page. 

We offer each Blacktown City household 2 $50 rebates for the purchase of a worm farm, compost bin, bokashi bin, pet poo composter, food digester or mulcher. 

For more information on our rebate program and to claim a rebate, visit the organics recycling section of our supporting sustainable solutions page.

We also run free composting and worm farming workshops throughout the year for Blacktown City residents. For more information and to see our upcoming workshops, visit our Community workshops and programs page.

Compost bins and worm farms are available for purchase from the customer service counter located at the Civic Centre - 62 Flushcombe Road, Blacktown.

1. Line

• Line your caddy with your green compostable liner
• Only use the compostable liner provided by Council. These are labelled as Australian Standard – AS 4736 (for commercial composting)
• To open the liner, rub the top of the liner between your fingertips. Then peel the sides open and shake.

2. Fill

Fill your caddy with your food scraps:

• fruit and vegetables
• meat, bones and seafood (not oyster shells)
• leftovers and takeaway food (removed from packaging)
• eggshells and dairy products
• bread, cake, rice and pasta
• loose tea and coffee.

3. Empty

• When the caddy is full, tie the compostable liner
• Place the compostable bag in your green-lidded food and garden waste bin
• You can also place your food scraps into the bin loose

4. Rinse

• If needed, you can hand-wash your caddy or carefully place it in your dish washer
• Line your caddy with the liner and start collecting your food scraps again!

It’s a food and garden waste recovery/composting service. 

Residents will be able to place food scraps, unpackaged food waste items and garden waste in the new green-lidded bin.

The food and garden waste bin will be provided to residents living in eligible houses, villas and town houses.

Properties are eligible if:

• bins aren’t shared with other properties

• bins aren’t kept in a shared bin storage place.

We will deliver the new food and garden waste bin to eligible households from June 2025. 

The introduction of a food and garden waste bin aligns with the NSW Government mandate. All NSW councils need to implement a separate collection service for food and garden waste for all households by 2030.

For this reason, you can’t opt out of having the service.

Residents can opt to keep the 240L red lidded waste bin, move to a smaller 80L red lidded waste bin or receive the standard service.  If you believe that either the small or large waste service would better suit your household, your new green-lidded waste bin will have details on how and the date you need to apply by to keep your large service or change to a smaller service.

The new waste service options are:

* The draft annual waste service charges (domestic waste management charges) are proposed as part of the 2025/26 Goods and services pricing schedule and are subject to Council endorsement in June 2025. It will take us 6 months to complete the delivery of the new waste service. For this reason, the draft annual service charges only include 6 months of the food and garden waste service costs. These charges will be included in the annual rates notice sent in July 2025.

In setting our annual domestic waste management charge we always strive to provide the best value for our community. 

The change follows the NSW Government mandate for councils to introduce green-lidded food and garden waste bins by 2030.

For the average Blacktown City household, 52% of the waste in our red-lidded waste bin is food and garden waste. The new food and garden waste bin will help divert valuable resources from landfill, create high quality compost and help us to meet our carbon neutral goals.

Our current contract for processing our domestic waste is also expiring, which has given us the opportunity to change our waste services. Results of our community consultation in 2020 told us that 79% of the participants were supportive of a food and garden waste service.  

The move from a 2-bin service to a 3-bin service will be the biggest waste service change our City has experienced in more than 3 decades.

The time from now to 2025, allows us to prepare for and effectively deliver the new service change for our community.

For example, we need to buy trucks and bins to provide the service. Additionally, our current contract for processing our domestic waste does not expire until 2025 so the new service will align with our new waste contracts.

Yes, a kitchen caddy and compostable bin liners will be delivered to all households.

1. Use the compostable liners to line the kitchen caddy.
2. Store the kitchen caddy on your kitchen bench to collect food scraps.
3. Empty the food scraps from the kitchen caddy into your green bin.

Food scraps and garden waste can be placed in the bin, including:

• fruit and vegetable scraps
•  meat, bones and seafood
• takeaway food (removed from packaging)
• eggshells and dairy products
• bread, cake, rice and pasta
• loose tea and coffee
• leftovers
• Australian Standard AS 4736 compostable liners.
• grass clippings, flowers and plants
• small branches and sticks (no longer than 100 cm and wider than 20 cm).

The following items can’t be placed in the bin:

• plastic and biodegradable bags
• food in containers or packaged
• paper and cardboard
• paper towels and tissues
• nappies, wipes and sanitary items
• pet waste and kitty litter
• rocks and soil
• timber and building materials
• plant pots, garden hoses and gardening tools
• large logs and tree branches. 

Only compostable liners labelled as Australian standard AS 4736 (for commercial composting) should be used. These liners have a seedling logo.

Council will provide the Australian Standard compostable liners with the new food and garden waste bin.

1. Fill

• line your caddy with the provided Australian Standard – AS 4736 compostable liner
• fill your caddy with food scraps
• place all garden waste in the food and garden waste bin.

2. Dispose

• empty your caddy every 2-3 days, or when full
• secure the top of the liner and place it in your food and garden waste bin.

3. Present

• present your bins at the kerb the night before your collection day
• to help us safely access your bins, place them:
  • 1 metre apart
  • 1 metre clear of trees and shrubs
  • on the kerb and clear of parked cars
  • with lid closed and no heavier than 70 kg.

4. Collect

• we empty your food and garden waste bin weekly
• after your bins are emptied, take them back into your property
• start using your food and garden waste bin again!

The new food and garden service will be received at Eastern Creek Organics ECO (formerly UR-3R). The material will undergo a process of recovery by shredding, composting, screening and testing. This material can be used for farming and agricultural use. 

Our waste is now processed and sorted through multiple methods that include shredding to open garbage bags, capture of recycling materials and removal of contaminants before going to landfill. Recent NSW regulatory changes require all NSW households to source separate food and garden waste material form the red-lidded bin. From August 2025 our waste will be disposed of at the landfill in Lucas Heights. 

The recycling collected from the yellow-lidded kerbside bin is going to the Western Sydney Materials Recovery Facility in Rooty Hill. This facility uses mechanical sorting to separate recyclable materials such as glass, plastics, paper/cardboard, steel and aluminium. This is a new state-of-the-art facility that produces a quality recyclable product.

The recycling industry in Australia does not have capacity to recycle all recovered products. Our contractor Cleanaway trades recovered recyclables with both onshore and offshore processing facilities, that have been vetted as legitimate recycling facilities. Recyclables are not stockpiled at these facilities, nor are they mixed with general rubbish. For example, PET plastics such as food and drink packaging are transported to the Albury-Wodonga Circular Plastics Australia facility where the plastic is made into new bottles and packaging. Cleanaway has an export licence based upon tight restrictions which govern the sustainable trade of recovered recyclables.