The City of Newcastle is changing the way household garbage is collected. 

Newcastle households now have a 140 litre garbage bin with a red lid for general waste, 240 litre lime green lid bin for green waste and a 240 litre yellow lid bin for recycables.

The red lid bin will be collected every week. The yellow and green lid bins will be collected fortnightly on alternate weeks. To find your suburb collection dates, click here.

Bin Presentation

Please make sure your bin is out on the kerb by 6am on the day of collection.

Where possible, your bin should be at least one metre clear of other bins or parked cars, trees, power poles and street signs.

Please try and bag your rubbish (not recyclables) within your general waste bin as this helps reduce loose items being dropped onto the road during collection.

Items such as bricks, concrete and heavy timber are not acceptable for collection in your general waste bin. Please see the Waste and Recycling Directory for how to dispose of these items.

General Waste

Your red lid bin is your general waste bin.  This is collected from the kerb weekly.

Items that can be placed in your general waste bin include:

Items that will not be accepted in your general waste bin includes:

• needles and syringes
• oil
• paint and
• chemicals.

If you require an extra bin, complete the excess general waste form (29.1kb pdf).  Note, you will require Acrobat 6 or greater to access this form.

For large household items, use Council's bulk waste collections.

All electronic equipment should be recycled through the regular free E-waste recycling events. Click here for information on our next electronic recycling event.

Recycling

Your yellow lid bin is your recycling bin. This is collected from the kerb fortnightly.

Items that can be placed in your recycling bin include:

• paper and cardboard
• all household plastic bottles and containers - rigid plastics (eg icecream and take away containers, detergent and drink bottles regardless of their recycling number)
• glass bottles and jars
• steel and aluminium cans and
• liquid paperboard (milk and juice cartons without foil linings).

Items which will not be accepted in your recycling bin include:

• plastic bags and polystyrene
• clothing, material or rope
• nappies
• window, mirror and windscreen glass
• milk and juice cartons with foil linings
• crockery and glassware
• timber and building materials
• garden and food waste
• vegetable and motor oil (see Waste and Recycling Directory)
• paint tins (see Waste and Recycling Directory) and
• batteries (see Waste and Recycling Directory).

Placing incorrect items in your recycling bin can contaminate entire recycling loads. These items can also damage the machinery and cause injury to the people sorting your recyclables.

Shredded paper is difficult to collect if placed loose in your recycling bin. Non- shredded paper is preferable, but if shredding is necessary, consider placing it in a paper bag to contain it.

If your household recycling bin is full before your fortnightly collection, consider placing your extra recyclables into one of our free public place recycling bins.

Council offers public place recycling stations at six locations across Newcastle:

• Nobbys Beach (near the cafeteria)
• Wheeler Place, Newcastle
• Hunter Street Mall (Crown Streey end)
• James Street, Hamilton
• Newcastle Beach viewing platform and
• Lambton Pool (entrance fee to the pool is required).

These recycling stations accept the same items as your residential recycling system.

Learn more about Newcastle's kerbside collection service, and what the materials get turned into by downloading a copy of our Kerbside Recycling Service Brochure (590kb pdf).

If you require an extra recycling bin, complete the Excess Recycling Form (31.9kb pdf) . Note, you will require Acrobat 6 or greater, to access this form.

Green waste bin

Your lime green lid bin is your green waste bin. This bin is collected from the kerb, alternate weeks to your recycling bin.

Items that can be placed in your green waste bin include:

• garden prunings
• grass clippings
• leaves and bark and 
• small branches.

Items that will not be accepted in your green waste bin include:

• materials in plastic bags
• food and kitchen scraps
• soil, bricks or construction waste
• clumps of root material (eg cocos palms and bougainvilleas)
• trees stumps and large limbs
• animal droppings and
• general rubbish and recyclables.

Residents can also take extra green waste to a drop off spot.