From November 2021, Colac Otway Shire will collect two bins for recyclable materials. A yellow bin for paper/cardboard, hard plastics and aluminium/steel, and a purple bin for glass only (no lids).
Your recycling bin with the yellow lid is collected fortnightly on the same day as your red bin. You should place your recycling bin on the kerb the night before collection day to ensure it gets emptied. Check when your recycling bin is to be collected or download the Goodsort app, so you don’t miss recycling night.
Your purple (glass-only) recycling bin goes out with your yellow bin – but only once every four weeks. Look for the purple G on the waste calendars.
Please contact the Colac Otway Shire if:
- Your yellow or purple recycling bin is missing or broken. Download an application form for a replacement bin or call to repair your bin.
- Your recycling bins are not collected by 4pm on collection day. You can use our Submit a Request form to report a missed collection or get in touch with us by phone.
What can I put in my yellow recycling bin?
- Cardboard boxes
- Steel cans including aerosol cans (empty), aluminium cans, clean aluminium foil and pie trays
- Milk and juice bottles
- Books, envelopes, brochures, newspapers and magazines
- Plastic bottles, containers, trays, plant pots
- Pots and pans- no glass lids
What can I put in my purple recycling bin?
What can’t I put in my kerbside recycling bin?
- Food waste, meat, fish, poultry, scraps or bones – put these in your FOGO bin
- Plastic bags/ soft plastics - recycle at Coles supermarket
- Garbage/ rubbish – put in your red bin
- Plastic wrap, polystyrene and foam meat trays – put in your red bin
- Milk and Juice cartons – put in your red bin
- Glassware, crockery, Pyrex, window glass or mirrors – put in your red bin
- Waxed cardboard – put in your red bin
- Green waste – put in your FOGO bin
- Nappies – put in your red bin
Other waste items
Visit our Alternative Waste Disposal page to find out how you can dispose of the following items:
- Renovation material or hot ashes
- Syringes
- Liquids, acids, hazardous or chemical waste
- Paints, pesticides, oil or solvents
- Timber, bricks or rubble
- Gas bottles
- Printer cartridges
- CD's or DVDs
- E-waste items
- Batteries
For more information on what can and can’t go in your bins see the A-Z waste guide or visit the Think Recycle website. You can visit Visy Recycling website to find out more information how the recycling process works.
You can also find information on what goes in your garbage and what goes in your FOGO bin.
Extra bin collection
Three extra kerbside recycling collections start the week before Boxing day to assist with disposal of extra recycling during Christmas and the New Years. Please check your waste calendar for dates (highlighted in orange).
Need a new bin or your waste collected?
Council can provide additional or replacement bins if necessary and your circumstances meet requirements. You can request a new bin or apply for waste collection from your property.
Be a good sort! Use the right bin, help reduce waste going to landfill.
Want to more about recycling please check out Sustainability Victoria. This site has a lot of great information about what can and can't go in your recycle bin.
Steel can recycling
Steel cans are among the world's most recycled materials and very easy to recycle by being separated magnetically from other recyclables.
Aluminium can recycling
An aluminium can is 100% recyclable. Every time it is recycled it saves enough energy to watch TV for three hours (compared to mining and producing a new can).
Glass bottle recycling
Glass can be recycled indefinitely as its structure does not deteriorate when reprocessed. Glass is sorted into 3 colour categories; flint (clear), amber and green.
Paper / cardboard recycling
Different grades of paper are recycled into different new products. Old newspapers are usually made into newsprint, egg cartons, or paperboard. Old corrugated boxes are made into new corrugated boxes or paperboard. Office paper can be made into almost any new paper product: stationery, newsprint, magazines, or books. Paper can only be recycled a finite number of times due to the shortening of paper fibres making the material less versatile.
Plastic bottle recycling
Plastic recycling recovers scrap or waste plastics for reprocessing into useful products. This could mean melting down polyester soft drink bottles then spinning the polymer into fibres. Plastics are sorted according to their resin identification code.
Need a new bin or your waste collected?
Council can provide additional or replacement bins if necessary and your circumstances meet requirements. You can request a new bin or apply for waste collection from your property.