Let’s get it sorted Fraser Coast!

Don’t put your recyclables in a bag or bin liner as they may end up in landfill.

Keep your recycling loose when it goes into your yellow lid bin.

Batteries should never be placed in your kerbside bins.

They can cause dangerous fires – not only in collection trucks, but also at waste facilities.

All types of batteries are hazardous – from the AAA batteries in your TV remote to your car battery. 

To dispose of batteries safely:

• Tape the terminals of each battery to prevent sparks and reduce the risk of fire.
• Place batteries in a glass or plastic container (not metal) and store them out of reach of children until you can drop them off.
• Drop them off for free at any Fraser Coast Waste Facility (including car, boat, phone, laptop, and power tool batteries).
• Household batteries (like AA, AAA, 9V, and button cells) can also be recycled through B-cycle drop-off points at Woolworths, Aldi, and Coles.
• Find your nearest drop-off location at bcycle.com.au/drop-off

Recycling batteries the right way helps protect our environment and recovers valuable materials that can be used again.

If you can scrunch it in your hands, then it’s soft plastic. This includes food packaging, plastic film, bags and bin liners.   

Currently, Queenslanders don’t have access to soft plastic recycling via supermarket retailers. Please put soft plastics in the general waste bin or avoid them altogether.

Council will continue to monitor and liaise with the resource recovery industry to identify opportunities to divert this material from landfill.

In the meantime, try to reduce your plastic usage and consider purchasing products that are not packaged in plastic.

Items around your home made of rigid plastic such as old toys, coat hangers, kitchenware, plant pots and industrial materials like PVC piping can’t be recycled through your yellow lid bin.

Use an alternative disposal option for rigid plastics such as donating old toys or taking it to Council’s waste facilities - suitable items may be resold through the Tip Shops, giving them a second life.

If the items are broken or can’t be reused, they should be placed in your general waste bin.

Glassware such as drinking glasses, window glass, and Pyrex should not be placed in your yellow lid bin.

These types of glass melt at different temperatures than glass bottles and jars, which means they can contaminate the recycling stream.

Only glass bottles and jars that have previously contained food or liquid are accepted in the yellow lid bin.

All other types of glass should be placed in your general waste bin.

Food scraps and garden waste can’t go in the yellow lid bin and should be placed in a compost bin, worm farm, or your general waste bin.

Free green waste disposal is available at most Council waste facilities. We recycle your green waste into mulch, helping save landfill space and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

For more information, please visit - www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/green-waste-and-mulch

Clothing, towels, blankets, sheets, and other household textiles should not be placed in your yellow lid bin.

Instead, help keep textiles out of landfill by:

• Donating or selling clothes that are still in good condition.
• Repurposing old textiles into cleaning cloths or DIY projects.
• Donating towels and blankets to local animal shelters.
• Clothes in good condition can also be dropped off at Council’s waste facilities, where they may be resold through the Tip Shops.

• Shredded paper can only be recycled if it’s placed inside a paper bag. Loose shredded paper is too small and can fall through the machines at the recycling centre.
• Tissues and paper towels can’t be recycled because they’re often contaminated with food, grease, or bodily fluids, which can ruin other recyclables. They also break down more easily and aren’t strong enough to be recycled again.
• If they’re clean and free from chemicals, composting is usually the best way to get rid of them.

Chemicals, paint, and oil should never be placed in your kerbside bins, or poured down the drain.

Improper disposal can contaminate entire truckloads of recycling or create environmental hazards.

These hazardous materials must be taken to a designated waste facility for safe disposal.

You can dispose of up to 20 litres of chemicals, paint, or oil for free at most Council facilities (except for Aramara).

For more information on hazardous waste visit www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/hazardous-waste

It is an offence to dispose of needles and syringes in an unsafe manner. 

Queensland Health’s Needle and Syringe Programs (NSPs) provide free disposal containers.

You can also purchase sharps containers from most chemists. 

If you don't have a sharps container - 

1. Place used needles in a secure rigid container such as an empty laundry detergent bottle.
2. Label it clearly as 'SHARPS'.
3. Secure the lid carefully and seal it.
4. You can then place it in your general waste bin.

E-cigarettes and vapes should never be placed in your kerbside bins. These items often contain lithium-ion batteries, which can pose a serious fire risk when compacted inside waste collection trucks.

When crushed during the collection process, the batteries can overheat and ignite, endangering our workers, equipment, and the community.

To dispose of e-cigarettes or vapes safely:

• Remove the mouthpiece and liquid chamber (where possible) and place these components in your general waste bin.
• Take the remaining device to a designated drop-off point at either the Nikenbah or Maryborough waste facilities.
• Some tobacconists on the Fraser Coast also offer vape and e-cigarette disposal services - check with your local store.

Fraser Coast waste facilities accept clean polystyrene items (up to 1 cubic metre) for free, helping to keep this bulky material out of landfill.

Once dropped off, the polystyrene is melted down to be transformed into new products — supporting a more sustainable, circular economy.

What can recycled polystyrene become?

• Insulation for homes and buildings
• Foam packaging for fragile goods
• Food containers, cups, and trays
• Lightweight concrete or filler for construction
• Everyday items like picture frames, toys, and furniture

By recycling polystyrene, you’re helping turn waste into something useful — keeping our region cleaner and more sustainable.

Electronic waste refers to small and large household electrical appliances such as TVs, computers, old mobile phones, chargers, and whitegoods.

E-waste contains precious resources which can be recovered and recycled into new products.

You can recycle e-waste items at Council's waste facilities for free.

E-waste recycling also ensures that hazardous substances such as mercury and lead in your electronic devices are disposed of correctly.

Up to 4m3 or 1 tonne of clean green waste can be dropped off for free at Council waste facilities (except Aramara).

This includes lawn clippings, branches, weeds, tree trunks, and more. Just remember, branches should be under 1.2m long and 40cm wide.

We recycle your green waste into mulch, helping save landfill space and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Plus, you can buy mulch directly from Maryborough and Hervey Bay waste facilities and put it back into your gardens, producing healthier plants and creating a circular economy!

For more information, please visit - www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/green-waste-and-mulch

As a part of Council’s recycling program, concrete that is disposed of at our waste facilities is recycled into road base and used within Council’s facilities and for road building. 
 
By crushing concrete into road base, every year Council prevents 3,000 tonnes of concrete from going into landfill which saves 2,000 cubic meters of space, that’s almost the size of an Olympic size pool!

Containers for Change is a container refund scheme where eligible drink containers can be returned for a 10-cent refund.

Check how it works and eligible containers here - www.containersforchange.com.au/qld/how-it-works

You can drop off your used or empty laser and inkjet cartridges at all Officeworks stores and other participating outlets through the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark recycling program.

Learn more here - recyclingnearyou.com.au/cartridges

DrumMuster provides Australian agricultural and veterinary chemical users with a recycling pathway.

Eligible containers must carry the drumMUSTER logo.

For more information visit - www.drummuster.org.au

Any unwanted paint (up to 20L) can be taken to Nikenbah and Maryborough waste facilities, where it is collected by Paintback and recycled correctly.

To find out more information about Paintback program visit - www.paintback.com.au

These items can be dropped at our Recycling Sheds for free. Visit the Waste Facilities page for locations and opening hours.

Yes – items should be fairly clean. Please remove food scraps and give containers a quick rinse to help stop contamination.

Take all lids off. Items smaller than a credit card fall through sorting machines and aren’t recycled.

Put lids in the general waste bin.

Milk bottle caps can be dropped off at the recycling shed at Maryborough and Nikenbah waste facilities.

Common mistakes that don’t belong in your yellow lid bin:

1. No food or liquids – Keep recyclables clean, dry, and empty.

2. No soft plastics (like bags or packaging) – These tangle sorting machinery.

3. No batteries – Find your nearest drop-off location at bcycle.com.au/drop-off

4. No electronics – Take e-waste to Council's Recycling Shed.

5. No broken glass, crockery, or Pyrex – Wrap and place in general waste.

6. No wax-lined coffee cups or juice cartons.

7. No dirty tissues or paper towels.

8. No greasy pizza boxes – Separate the greasy part and discard it.

Beware of "Wishcycling"!

Placing items in the recycling bin and hoping they belong there can lead to contamination. Use the A-Z Guide or Recycle Mate app to check the correct bin for any item.

ACCEPTED 
These plastics can be recycled:

• Type 1 – PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate): Soft drink bottles, food containers (e.g. peanut butter jars), strawberry punnets.
• Type 2 – HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene): Milk bottles, shampoo bottles, cleaning product containers (e.g. bleach).
• Type 5 – Polypropylene (PP): Yoghurt tubs, sour cream containers, margarine tubs. (Note: Some PP items, like toys and coat hangers, are not recyclable in the bin.)

Remember: Make sure all items are rinsed, and lids are removed before placing them in the yellow lid bin.

NOT ACCEPTED 
These items must go in general waste or other disposal programs:

• Type 3 – PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride): Cling wrap, shopping bags, electrical wiring coating, PVC pipes, shower curtains.
• Type 4 – LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene): Soft plastics like garbage bags, plastic gloves, food packaging.
• Type 5 – Polypropylene (PP) items that can’t be recycled: Toys, coat hangers, plant pots.
• Type 6 – Polystyrene (EPS – Expanded Polystyrene): Cannot go in the yellow lid bin, but can be recycled for free at Council waste facilities (up to 1m³).

Tip: Some items are made up of recyclable and non-recyclable materials, separate soft plastics coverings from food packaging to ensure more items can be recycled.

Not all products with a recycling symbol can be recycled at our Materials Recovery Facility, so remember to check the recycling fact sheet.  

When considering whether an item can go in the yellow lid bin, ask yourself what the item is made from. If the packaging is made from paper, cardboard, hard plastic, aluminium and steel or glass, it is likely it can be recycled.

Use the A–Z Recycling Guide or Recycle Mate app to search if an item can be recycled.

A-Z Recycling Guide

Recycle Mate is an initiative of the Australian Council of Recycling with funding support from the Australian Government. This app helps you recycle anywhere in Australia.

All you need to do is take a photo or type the name of the item you are interested to find about and Recycle Mate will give you disposal advise specific to your location.

Download on iTunes or Android. 

There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes once you take your bins out on bin night.  

After collection, recyclables are transported to a Materials Recovery Facility to be sorted by machine and then by workers to remove contaminants (like food and soft plastic). 

Once sorted into categories of paper, plastic, steel, aluminium and glass, the materials are sent to separate processing facilities where they are made into a variety of new products. 

• Paper and cardboard into new paper and cardboard. 
• Aluminium and steel cans into new cans or even car parts. 
• Hard plastics into new plastic bottles or products like fleece jackets and outdoor furniture. 
• Glass into new glass jars or crushed and used in road resurfacing.  

One thing you can be sure of is that once your recyclables are collected, they will be put to good use in Queensland’s growing circular economy.