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Residents

How to sort your waste correctly

Which bin do I put it in?

For a comprehensive A-Z sorting guide for your three-bin system, including tricky items that cannot be placed in your kerbside bins, visit the Recycle Right^® website or download the free Recycle Right^® app!

Recycle Right - Materials A-Z Guide 3 bin FOGO

Recycle Right - Download the free app

Bin labels

Turn your household into GREAT Sorters with these handy bin labels.

Download bin labels here

Three Bin FOGO System

In 2021/22, the City of Vincent transitioned from a two-bin system to a three-bin FOGO system. Single dwellings moved to our three-bin FOGO system in November 2021 and larger apartment complexes received a tailored roll-out between March - June 2022.

Lime Green Lid FOGO Bin

Your lime green lid FOGO bin is collected weekly and is for food organics and garden organics. The contents of this bin will be composted so please don't place any plastic, glass or metal in this bin. Please use only the certified compostable bags supplied in your kitchen caddy and never use plastic or plant based bags for this bin. You can place the following items in your FOGO bin:

Food waste including:

fruit and vegetables
meat and bones
tea bags and coffee grinds
bread and dairy products
seafood including shells
food leftovers and scraps
egg shells
out-of-date food (unpackaged)

Garden organics including:

lawn clippings
leaves
flowers and weeds
small branches
twigs

Other products including:

food-soiled paper (fish and chips, kebab wrapper)
food soiled cardboard (pizza boxes, burger boxes)
tissues
paper towels
shredded paper
pet poo
human/pet hair

Yellow Lid Recycling Bin

Your yellow lid recycling bin is collected fortnightly and is for recyclable items, which are taken to a facility to be sorted into their different material types (e.g. glass, paper, steel and plastic).

Remember to place them in the bin LOOSE, RINSED, with LIDS OFF. Please do not bag recyclables!

Please use this bin for recycling these five items only:

aluminium and steel cans
glass bottles and jars
plastic bottles and containers
cardboard (please flatten)
Paper (NO shredded paper, paper towels or tissues)

Red Lid General Waste Bin

Your red lid general waste bin is collected fortnightly and is for general rubbish items that cannot be reused, recycled or composted, including:

nappies and hygiene products
soft, scrunchable plastics
polystyrene and foam packaging
unusable clothing and rags (if in good condition – donate to charity!)
face masks - all types
Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits
gloves
bubble wrap
meat trays
greaseproof paper, baking paper, waxed paper
garden hose
plastic strapping
general rubbish items

In an effort to reduce contamination and improve WA's recycling rates, all Perth and Peel local governments and material recovery facilities have agreed on the same list of acceptable items for each bin.

The below items can no longer be placed in your yellow-lid recycling bin:

Soft Plastics

The yellow lid recycling bin cannot accept soft plastics or bags. Items should be loose and never bagged.

Plastic bags, cling wrap, bubble wrap, lolly wrappers, chip packets, cereal bags and other soft, scrunchable plastics can get tangled in machinery at the materials recovery facility. They also contaminate the paper recycling stream by getting mixed up with bales of paper and cardboard, reducing the value of this end product.

UPDATE - June 2023: REDcycle's soft plastics collection program has been suspended due to a backlog of materials and lack of domestic recycling capacity.

A Soft Plastics Taskforce has been created by major supermarkets Woolworths, Coles and Aldi to create a 'Roadmap to Restart' soft plastics collections again in the near future.

So, what can you do while soft plastics recycling is unavailable? Here are some ideas:

Rethink your soft plastic packaging purchases: is there a packaging free or recyclable packaged option you could switch to?
Choose loose, unpackaged items over prepacked.
Try a shop at your local bulk food store to see the many packing free options available and BYO jars and containers to refill.
Ditch that plastic produce bag: BYO reusable produce bags or put items loose in your shopping bag.
Ask your favourite brands and shops to look at alternative packaging options or to consider offering a BYO container service.

Aerosol Cans

Aerosol cans are hazardous and must not be put any of your kerbside bins.

They contain pressurised, flammable gases or liquids, which can cause fires and explosions at recycling facilities or when compressed in the back of a collection truck.

Please take aerosol cans to one of these Recycling Facilities (free of charge):

Recycling Centre Balcatta, 238 Balcatta Road, Balcatta. Ph: 9205 8555 https://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/waste-and-environment/waste-and-recycling/recycling-centre-balcatta-(rcb)

West Metro Recycling Centre, 60 Lemnos Street, Shenton Park. Ph: 9384 6711 https://www.wmrc.wa.gov.au/recycling-disposal/west-metro-recycling-centre/

Tamala Park, 1700 Marmion Avenue, Mindarie. Ph: 9306 6303 https://www.mrc.wa.gov.au/disposal/how-to-dispose-of-waste/sorting-your-load.aspx

All of these facilities are open seven days a week.

For further Household Hazardous Waste collection facilities visit: https://www.wasteauthority.wa.gov.au/programs/view/household-hazardous-waste

Meat trays

All meat trays must be placed in the red-lid general bin. This is due to the contamination caused by not rinsing the trays, absorption pads left on trays, and the mixture of materials used to make them, eg. soft plastic film and hard plastic container.

Consider buying your meat from a butcher where purchases are wrapped in paper or try taking your own reusable container.

Handy tip: Leave a reusable container or two in your car to keep handy for shopping trips.

Polystyrene

Polystyrene and styrofoam, including bean bag beads, expanded polystyrene packaging and styrofoam packaging sheets, cannot be recycled through your kerbside recycling bins, so should not be placed in the yellow-lid recycling bin.

You can place very small amounts of polystyrene or styrofoam in your red-lid general waste bin.

Expanded polystyrene packaging can be recycled in larger amounts for free by dropping it at one of several locations around the Perth metro area, including:

Recycling Centre Balcatta, 238 Balcatta Road, Balcatta. Ph: 9205 8555 https://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/waste-and-environment/waste-and-recycling/recycling-centre-balcatta-(rcb)

West Metro Recycling Centre, 60 Lemnos Street, Shenton Park. Ph: 9384 6711 https://www.wmrc.wa.gov.au/recycling-disposal/west-metro-recycling-centre/

Tamala Park, 1700 Marmion Avenue, Mindarie. Ph: 9306 6303 https://www.mrc.wa.gov.au/disposal/how-to-dispose-of-waste/sorting-your-load.aspx

CLAW Environmental, 5 Forge Street, Welshpool. Ph: 9333 4888 https://www.clawenvironmental.com

All pieces must have tape and stickers removed and will be recycled at no cost.

The polystyrene will be compacted on site and sent for recycling into new packaging materials.

Coffee cups

Take-away coffee cups and lids are unable to be recycled. They should be placed in you red-lid general waste bin at home, or a general waste street tidy bin if you are out and about.

Compostable coffee cups are unable to be placed in the lime-green lid FOGO bin at this time. This is due to the fact that they cannot be quickly and easily distinguished from plastic-lined coffee cups in the sorting process. With plastic lined coffee cups and lids forming part of the WA Plan for Plastics single-use plastics ban, we hope that we may be able to process these in FOGO in the future. For now, please place all compostable or plastic lined single-use coffee cups and lids in the red-lid general waste bin, or a general waste street tidy bin if you are out and about.

Try to avoid single-use disposables such as coffee cups. BYO reusable coffee cup to the cafe or borrow a cup from their mug library.

If your favourite cafe doesn't have a mug library, let us know so we can help them to set one up for free.

Handy tip: Keep a reusable coffee cup in your car or bag to have handy for impromtpu cafe visits.

Helpful tips

Only loose items can be placed in the recycling bin - bagged items will not be recycled.
Rinse all jars, bottles and containers - used dish washing water can be used for this.
Please don’t put batteries, globes or chemicals in your bins! These items are hazardous and can be harmful if they enter the wrong waste stream. Click here to find out how to safely dispose of these items.

More Languages - How to Sort Your Waste Guide

We have developed the following How to Sort Your Waste Guide with the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. It is a handy tool to help you separate your waste streams correctly.

This is also available in the back pages of your Waste and Recycling Guide. Tear out or print off a copy here and place on your fridge or near your bin store.

Available to download here in the following languages. If your language is not represented below, please contact our team for further assistance.