Standing at the bin with something in your hand is the most common waste question in the country. The fastest answer is the lid colour, because Australia runs a shared colour code, and once you know what each lid is for you can place most things without a second thought.
That code is set by an Australian Standard, AS 4123, and it is the same starting point from Cairns to Fremantle: red for general waste, yellow for mixed recycling, green for garden or food and garden organics, and purple for a separate glass bin where a council runs one. Your council still decides exactly what each bin accepts, which is why the final word always lives on your council page. Search your postcode on the home page to open it.
The four lids, in plain terms
The red lid is everyday rubbish that cannot be recycled or composted: soft plastics where no program runs, polystyrene, nappies, broken ceramics and general household waste. The yellow lid is rinsed bottles, jars, cans, paper and cardboard, placed loose and never bagged, because a plastic bag of recycling is usually sent to landfill unopened. The green lid is garden material in most areas, and food scraps too where a food and garden organics service runs. The purple lid is glass bottles and jars only, and it is arriving council by council rather than all at once.
The items people always get wrong
A handful of items cause almost all the confusion, and several of them do not belong in any kerbside bin at all. Here is the short answer for each, with the full detail a tap away:
- A mattress never goes in a kerbside bin. It is a booked hard rubbish or mattress recycling item.
- Household batteries must never go in any bin. They start fires in trucks and sorting plants. Drop them at a supermarket or library collection point.
- Soft plastics like bread bags and wrappers go in the red bin unless your council runs a dedicated program. They jam yellow bin machinery.
- Glass bottles and jars go in the purple glass bin where you have one, otherwise the yellow recycling bin.
- Old electronics are banned from landfill in several states. Use an e-waste drop off, not the bin.
- Food scraps go in the green bin where a food and garden organics service runs, otherwise the red bin.
The pattern is worth remembering: anything with a battery, a chemical, a gas cylinder or a screen usually has its own disposal path, and putting it in a wheelie bin is both against the rules and a genuine safety risk.
When in doubt, red bin
Hopeful recycling, sometimes called wishcycling, does more harm than good. One greasy container or one wrong plastic can contaminate an entire truckload so it is sent to landfill anyway. If you genuinely cannot tell, the red general waste bin is the responsible choice.
Why your neighbour's rules may differ
Two houses on either side of a council boundary can have different bins, different collection days and different accepted lists, because each local government area sets its own service. A three bin garden only system in one suburb can be a four bin food and glass system in the next. That is why the colour code gets you most of the way, and your council page finishes the job. Browse your state to find yours: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia or Western Australia.
Two shifts are changing the picture in many areas right now: the arrival of food scraps in the green bin, which we cover in the FOGO guide, and the separate purple glass bin, explained in the glass rollout guide. If your council has changed recently, those two are the reason.