Your recycling bin is collected fortnightly. It is only for items that can be recycled.
Acceptable items:
- paper and cardboard
- juice and milk cartons
- glass bottles and jars
- plastic bottles and containers
- steel and aluminium cans.
Please remember:
- no plastic bags can be recycled
- do not bag your recycling
- rinse items and remove lids before recycling bottles and jars.
Unacceptable items:
- food or garden waste
- clothing and textiles
- electronic waste
- medical waste including syringes and needles
- other household garbage.
Remember, if in doubt, leave it out. Even better, check our B informed app for safe disposal.
Safety first: Due to the size and shape of the garbage and recycling trucks, drivers have blind spots (areas hidden from view). Please supervise children at all times when trucks are nearby.
Please note: We do bin checks to make sure only the correct materials are placed in the bin.
To learn how to recycle right, see our guide below.
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.
Waste sorting and recycling is a shared responsibility, and everyone needs to work together to ensure the right materials are placed in the right bin. When households use their bins correctly, Blacktown City is able to recover more waste, reducing disposal and processing costs.
When items that we can’t recycle are placed in the recycling bin, it reduces the quality of the recyclable material and makes it harder to recover. It can also pose a safety risk to the collection drivers and the people working at the recycling sorting facility.
Find out what can and can’t go in your recycling bin here.
Helping Blacktown City households recycle better.
Our recycling contractor (Cleanaway) regularly checks bin contents to ensure residents are placing acceptable items in their recycling bins. They do this through visual audits prior to emptying and through cameras that can see the bin contents being emptied into the recycling collection vehicle.
If your recycling bin is found to be heavily contaminated with unacceptable items prior to collection, it will not be emptied and a sticker will be attached to your bin with instructions to remove the unacceptable items so that the bin can be emptied.
If your recycling bin is found to contain unacceptable items, even if the bin is emptied, you will be notified of the incident through a tag on the bin or a letter delivered to your home.
If your recycling bin is found to contain unaccepted items on 3 separate collection days within a 4-month period, we will visit your home to provide more education on what items are acceptable and unacceptable in your recycling bin.
If your recycling bin is found to contain unaccepted items on 4 separate collection days within a 4-month period, you will be notified and the bin will be removed. If your property has had its bin removed, you can request its return by contacting us via email council@blacktown.nsw.gov.au. The Domestic waste management charge is not reduced if a bin is removed due to contamination.
More information on this process is in Council’s Waste and resource recovery service charter here(PDF, 322KB).