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It’s easy to separate recycling and keep it out of landfill when you know exactly what waste should go into each of your colour-coded bins.

All waste and recyclables must be placed in these colour-coded bins.  Extra bagged or bundled waste, vegetation, recyclables or paper and cardboard left beside bins will not be collected.

Garbage

Red bin

For general household garbage we can’t recycle, including wax-coated cardboard or soiled paper, plastic bags, cling wrap, polystyrene and ceramics.

Bag lightweight waste like sawdust, dust or ash or seal it in a container so it can’t blow around.

No building materials, liquids or hazardous waste.

Where does your waste go?

The contents of the red-lidded bin are transported to the Belrose transfer station for aggregation prior to being transported to a facility Global Renewables, at Eastern Creek. 

The waste is processed first instead of going straight to landfill recovering recyclables such as paper, metals and plastic that shouldn’t be there and should preferably be placed in your recycling bins.  The remaining mixed waste organic contents is dehydrated reducing its volume and also rendering it inert preventing the emission of green-house gases. 
 

Mixed container recycling

Yellow bin

All containers (plastic, metal and carton), glass bottles and jars from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry, meat trays (no styrofoam), Tetra Paks, liquid board containers and fruit punnets, even without recycling symbols. Lids can be recycled if they are plastic, steel or aluminium. Keep them screwed onto the top of the container so they don’t get lost in the recycling process. 

Aerosol cans can be safely recycled if they are completely empty and intact. No need to remove the plastic spray nozzle. If not empty they can be disposed of at the next Chemical CleanOut.

For more room in your yellow bin, remove the lid from plastic liquid containers, squash the container then put the lid back so that the container remains squashed.

Aluminium foil can be added if rolled into a ball the size of a tennis ball to ensure it is recovered for recycling.

No plastic bags, cling wrap, polystyrene, ceramics, white glass (like Malibu bottles), flat glass, furniture or toys.

No soft scrunchable plastics such as bread, rice, pasta bags and cling wrap. 

No small disposable gas canisters as they are in danger of explosion.  These can be disposed at a Chemical CleanOut.

Where does your waste go?

The contents of your yellow-lidded recycling bin are transported to Kimbriki, where  the containers are aggregated on behalf of Council.  The containers are then sent to IQRenew, an Australian Material Recycling Facility (MRF) on the NSW Central Coast for sorting. Several methods are used to separate plastic, aluminium/steel and glass containers.

Glass: bottles and jars are sent to various processors and manufacturers in Australia to be recycled. Large pieces are used in new bottles and jars and smaller pieces are crushed to make washed glass sand used in road base, pool filters and drainage materials.

Metal: electromagnets separate out steel cans and aluminium cans are also separated. The steel and aluminium are then taken to metal recyclers to be melted and made into new items.

Plastic: infrared sensors and air jets help sort the different plastic types. About sixty percent of plastic in our yellow bin is ‘type 2 plastic HDPE’ (such as milk bottles) and is currently sent to a Melbourne based recycler who turns it into plastic film used to cover vineyards and orchards. The other recovered plastics go into the manufacture of various products including wheelie bins, furniture, carpet and water bottles. Contaminated plastics and soft plastics cannot currently be recycled from the yellow bin.

Clean paper and cardboard recycling

Blue bin

For clean paper and cardboard only, including glossy magazines and shredded paper. Please flatten boxes if you can.

Shredded paper should be contained in a box or a large paper bag. This will avoid spillage as the bin is emptied and will ensure the shredded paper is recycled and not lost during the recycling process.

Clean parts only of pizza boxes (no oil or food) can be recycled. No wax-coated cardboard or soiled cardboard and paper. Put these in your red garbage bin. Staples can be left in your paper or cardboard boxes and the plastic window doesn't need to be removed from the window envelopes before adding to the blue bin. If you have a compost bin you can add small pieces and small amounts of food-soiled paper.

Where does your waste go?

Our paper and cardboard recycling is highly valued as the content is generally clean and free of contaminants like glass, liquids and plastic particles. This makes excellent raw material for paper mills.

The contents of your blue-lidded paper recycling bin are transported to Kimbriki, where the paper/cardboard is aggregated on behalf of Council.  The paper/cardboard is then transported to Visy (another Australian company) in Sydney’s western suburbs, for sorting and sending to paper mills to produce packaging, cardboard boxes and other paper products such as recycled paper towels and toilet paper. 

Vegetation

Lime green bin

For garden waste like leaves, branches less than 75mm thick, dead flowers, grass cuttings and other vegetation that can be mulched. No tree stumps, logs, trunks, soil, bricks, plant pots, tiles, stones or concrete. Christmas trees that have been chopped enough to be contained in the bin with the lid closed flat are accepted.

Where does your waste go?

Australian Native Landscapes at Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre turn residential and commercial customer’s vegetation and wood waste into a variety of high quality woodchip, mulch and soil improvers after it has been shredded and composted for six months.

By having a separate green vegetation bin, we’re able to ensure your garden waste is used again as landscaping, agricultural and garden supplies in a variety of ways from household gardens to large commercial landscape installations and farmers throughout NSW.
 

Excess Vegetation?

Residents can drop off excess vegetation generated at home at Kimbriki. Northern Beaches Council will pay Kimbriki the advertised fee for this service under the following restrictions:

  • Vehicles are limited to cars, station wagons, utes, family vans or trailers with up to 300kg of vegetation.
  • Proof of residency, ie Northern Beaches Council sticker, driver's licence or rates notice is required.
  • No trucks or other vehicles are allowed. However arrangements can be put in place to register a trade vehicle for a resident's own occasional use. Please see Kimbriki reception for details.
  • Vehicles are entitled to one vegetation drop-off on any given day. If your load is over 300kg you must pay for the portion you are over.