What goes in your bins

This bin is for standard, day to day household rubbish, i.e. food scraps, packaging that is not recyclable. All loose rubbish, polystyrene, foam and bean bag beans must be bagged before being placed in your bin.

The following should not be put in your bin:

• batteries
• building/renovation waste – e.g. large pieces of PVC pipe, fixtures, fittings, plasterboard
• car motor or parts
• liquid waste, chemicals and oil
• paint tins – empty and still containing paint
• bricks, concrete, masonry, tiles, rocks,
• hot ashes
• asbestos
• gas cylinders
• white goods
• dead animals
• tyres
• furniture
• TV’s
• mattresses
• e-waste
• treated timber

Your recycling may not be able to be recycled and may not be collected if it is ‘contaminated’. Here are some of the general recycling guidelines of what can and can’t be recycled.

What can’t be recycled?

• Recycling items in plastic bags or tied in bundles
• Bottles/containers with their lids on
• Textiles (clothes, fabrics etc)
• Items with liquids in them or wet paper
• Wet paper and cardboard
• Tetra Pak’s (i.e. longlife milk cartons)

What can be recycled?

• unbroken glass bottles/jars (lids and caps removed and put into normal garbage)
• aluminium cans and clean foil trays
• steel cans including empty aerosol, empty or dried paint tins and clean pet food cans
• cleaned cartons
• cleaned plastic containers
• Non-soiled pizza boxes
• clean cardboard (boxes to be flattened or torn into pieces and slid down the sides of the bin)
• clean newspaper, junk mail and office paper.

HANDY TIP: Any plastic that can be scrunched and not return to its original shape should be put into the general waste bin. Due to the flat, thin nature of soft plastics, in a recycling facility they often end up being sorted with the paper, causing contamination in the recycling process.

Where does recycling go once collected?

All material collected from recycling bins goes to the Recycling Materials Recovery Facility, in Derwent Park and becomes their property upon delivery to manage. At the facility the recycled materials are sorted into the individual specific materials, compacted and then sent to Australian and overseas buyers to be made into new products.

You can place garden items only (no food scraps) and raw timber and small logs no larger than 10cm x 50cm in your green waste bin.

There is also maximum weight collection limit of 110kg for residential green waste.

Who receives green waste collection?

Green waste collection is for all residential properties in urban areas, including households in multi-unit dwellings. Green waste collection service is not available in some rural areas.

If you are unsure a green waste service is available to you, please contact our Customer Contact team on 03 6217 9500.

E-waste is discarded electronic devices and associated equipment.

Residents of Clarence can take the following e-waste to the Mornington Park Waste Transfer Station for disposal:

• All types of televisions
• Computer monitors
• Computers (towers and laptops)

Any type of equipment that can be hooked up to a computer such as keyboard and mouse, tablets, speakers, hard drives and printers.

This waste is classed as recoverables at the Transfer Station with a minimum charge of $18. This will allow you to take up to 160kg. For any disposals over 160kg, charges are applied on a pro-rata basis of $123.20 (including GST) per tonne.

Mobile phones can be dropped off at the Second Chance Re-use Shop at the Mornington Park Waste Transfer Station.

Larger items, excess rubbish and hard waste can be disposed of at the Mornington Park Waste Transfer Station.

Council no longer has an annual kerbside hard waste collection.

After the most recent collection, where 95% of materials collected between February and April 2023 were sent directly to landfill, consideration whether a hard waste service aligns with our sustainability goals and strategic direction was required.

It was decided, by Council, that a hard waste service does not help meet our goals due to poor waste diversion, ballooning costs and the inability to find a suitable contractor who could perform collections efficiently and safely whilst championing waste diversion.

The priority now is to encourage reuse and a circular economy.

This decision aligns our approach to resource recovery services with the majority of southern Tasmania. We know this will be disappointing for some, but we want to be leaders in the sustainability space and will now focus investment on positive measures like partnerships with the Garage Sale Trail and other initiatives that encourage re-use and recycling.

Alternatives and options available to residents for the self-management of their waste materials include:

• Online marketplaces (Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace, eBay).
• Local opportunity shops and charity organisations.
• Garage sales.
• Self-hauling materials to the local Transfer Station, Tip Shop or other permitted facility accepting waste material (Mornington Park Waste Transfer Station).

Other options:

• Skip bins and bulk waste pick-ups.
• Handyperson and gardening services (collect and dispose materials).
• Ute / trailer hire.
• Additional kerbside bins (either through Council or private).
• Online marketplaces (Airtasker).