Recycling at home
Brisbane residents are working hard to improve their recycling habits at home. Brisbane City Council households recycled more than 81,000 tonnes of waste in recycling wheelie bins in 2020-21, including paper, cardboard, glass, plastics, aluminium and steel.
Use this page to help you recycle more at home and send less waste to landfill. Together we'll get recycling sorted.
Test your recycling knowledge
Use our quick recycling quiz to:
- find out what type of recycler you are
- make sure you're putting the right things in the right bin.
Brisbane Bin and Recycling app
Download the free Brisbane Bin and Recycling app to help you stay up to date with bin collection days and learn how to recycle waste more effectively with tips and myths.
Use the app to help you make sure you're putting the right thing in the right bin every time.
What can I put in my recycling bin?
Before you dispose of any household item, check what it's made from. If it's made from paper, cardboard, firm plastic, metal (aluminium and steel) or glass, it's likely it can go in your recycling bin.
Find a full and detailed list of what can and can't go into your household recycling bin on our bin items page or by using the free Brisbane Bin and Recycling app.
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Need a larger household recycling bin?
By recycling paper, cardboard, glass, firm plastics and metal, it can be easy to have a full recycling bin each fortnight. You can swap to a larger recycling bin to make recycling easier for your home. Council has waived the $30 establishment fee.
What happens to your recycling?
Brisbane boasts a state-of-the-art recycling service that residents can be proud of. Recycling collected by Brisbane City Council’s dedicated fleet of recycling trucks is taken to Visy’s Material Recovery Facility at Gibson Island.
Council supports local recycling through Brisbane and Australian based companies.
Find out more
The process:
- Residents place recyclables in recycling bins.
- Recycling bins are collected by Council’s contractor and taken to Visy’s Material Recovery Facility at Gibson Island.
- Visy sorts recycling into streams of paper and cardboard, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) polyethylene terephthalate/polyester (PET), steel, mixed plastics, glass and aluminium to be reprocessed into new products.
- Items that are not recyclable but have been incorrectly placed into recycling bins are sorted out of these streams and go to landfill.