It’s time to start using your new green bin!
Published on 03 July 2024
Hume City Council’s green bin roll-out is officially over!
Our trucks have started collecting the 42,000 new green bins we delivered over the last three months. If you received a new food and garden bin as part of the roll-out, you can now start putting it out for collection.
If you haven’t already, check the ‘know my bin day’ tool to find out which week to put your green bin out. Green bins are collected on your usual bin day every two weeks, alternating with recycling.
If your property missed out on a green bin, or you already had one and received an extra one by mistake, it’s not too late! Let us know here and we’ll get it sorted for you.
Your green bin is for recycling food scraps and garden clippings. Here’s what you can put in your green bin:
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Meat, seafood and bones (cooked or raw)
- Pasta, noodles, rice and cereal
- Bread, pastries and cakes
- Lollies and chocolate
- Cheese, dairy food, eggshells
- Leftovers and other cooked food
- Mouldy, spoiled and out-of-date food
- Coffee grounds and loose tea leaves
- Grass clippings, leaves and weeds
- Sticks and branches (up to 10cm thick)
- Plant cuttings, fruit and flowers
- Plants and cuttings that can’t be mulched, such as roses, yuccas and vines.
It’s also important to know what NOT to put in your green bin. The waste from your green bin is made into compost that is used on landscaping and farms. Some things might seem like they belong in the green bin, but they can cause health and safety hazards for workers or contaminate the final product.
Make sure you keep the following out of your green bin:
- Food packaging, even if it’s labelled ‘compostable’ or ‘biodegradable’
- Caddy liners (again, even compostable ones – use some newspaper or paper towel instead)
- Kitty litter and pet poo
- Tea bags, coffee pods and coffee filters
- Cooking oil
- Wooden cutlery, toothpicks and icy pole sticks
- Timber and other wooden items
- Branches thicker than 10cm
- Soil, rocks and sand.
By using your green bin, you are helping to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill and make sure valuable organic material goes back into the soil where it belongs. Make compost, not climate change!
Check out these links for more information:
Green bin roll-out
Know my bin day
What goes in each bin?
Tips for using your green bin and caddy