Australia's bin system explained: red, yellow, green — and the 10c trick

Move house in Australia and the bins usually look familiar — that's because the lid colours follow a national standard (AS 4123). But what you're allowed to put under each lid still changes from council to council, and getting it wrong can mean a tagged bin left on the kerb. Here's the national picture, and the local details worth checking.

The three-lid standard

• Red lid — general waste. The stuff with nowhere else to go: soft plastics, nappies, broken crockery, polystyrene, and food- contaminated packaging. This is the bin to shrink, not feed.
• Yellow lid — recycling. The consistent core across the country: paper and cardboard, rigid plastic bottles and containers (codes 1, 2 and 5 are accepted almost everywhere), steel and aluminium cans, and glass bottles and jars. Everything in loose — never in a plastic bag — and containers empty and roughly rinsed.
• Green lid — organics. Depending on your council this is garden waste only, or full FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics), which also takes fruit and veg scraps, meat, bones, dairy and coffee grounds. FOGO is rolling out fast — check your council's site to see which version you have.

The local rules that trip people up

Pizza boxes are the classic: many FOGO councils want the greasy base torn up in the green bin, others say general waste — the clean lid is always recycling. Shredded paper is another: loose shreds clog sorting machinery, so most councils want them contained in a paper bag or the organics bin, or not at all. And glass is the big exception — Victoria and parts of other states are introducing a separate purple-lidded glass bin or crate, because broken glass in the yellow bin contaminates paper and card.

The 10c trick: container deposit schemes

Every state and territory now runs a container deposit scheme — Containers for Change, Return and Earn, CDS or CDL depending on where you live. Most drink bottles and cans between 150ml and 3 litres carry a 10 cent refund, redeemable at reverse vending machines and return depots. It adds up fast: a big family weekend can mean a few dollars back, and many schemes let you donate the refund to a charity or junior sports club with one tap. Wine and spirit bottles, milk and plain water containers over 1L are usually excluded — those still go in the yellow (or purple) bin.

Soft plastics and the tricky stuff

Since the REDcycle program collapsed in 2022, there's no national soft plastics stream — bread bags, wrappers and film go in the red bin unless your area has a local trial. Batteries never go in any kerbside bin (they cause truck fires): take them to B-cycle drop-offs at supermarkets and hardware stores. E-waste is banned from landfill in Victoria and restricted elsewhere — council drop-off days, transfer stations and retailer take-back cover most of it. And for anything bulky, most councils offer one or two free hard-waste collections a year — book them rather than hoping the truck takes it.

Sorting right is half the job; the other half is the bin actually making it to the kerb. BinMinder sends a free reminder the evening before every collection, matched to your address and your council's schedule.