Australian Capital Territory · Canberra · Need it gone?
Green waste removal in Canberra
In the ACT, the lime green lid garden waste bin is optional and collected fortnightly, taking lawn clippings, prunings and leaves. Food scraps only belong in it in the FOGO pilot suburbs. Timber up to 2 metres goes on the free annual bulky waste collection. A paid crew cuts, chips and clears a big job in an afternoon.
Sources ACT Government: binsACT Government: bulky waste collectionRecyclopaedia — the ACT A to Z guide to recycling, reuse and disposal
What is free?
Free- Timber up to 2 metres on a booked bulky waste collection, at no charge.
- A neighbour with chickens will often take clean garden scraps.
What is cheap?
Low cost- The Mitchell or Mugga Lane resource management centre, which sets its own fees for a green load.
What does paying get you?
Paid- Cut, chipped, loaded and gone in an afternoon.
Sponsored listings are paid placements. Disclosure.
Do I have to have a garden waste bin in the ACT?
No. The lime green lid garden waste bin is an optional service, collected fortnightly, and households opt in to it. It takes garden material only: lawn clippings, leaves and prunings that fit. A whole hedge, a tree, a stump or a load of soil does not, and those go on a booked bulky waste collection or to a resource management centre.
Can food scraps go in the lime green bin in Canberra?
Only in the FOGO pilot suburbs. The ACT's food and garden organics service is a pilot of more than 6,000 households in the Belconnen town centre, Bruce, Cook, Macquarie and selected Tuggeranong apartments, where the lime green bin is collected weekly and takes food. Everywhere else in the ACT, food scraps stay out of it and go in the red lid bin.
When will FOGO cover all of Canberra?
There is no published date. The ACT Government states that a city-wide service is subject to further government decision-making and will require a large-scale FOGO processing facility to be built. Until then the pilot suburbs are the only ACT households that can put food in the lime green bin. Composting at home is the way to keep food out of landfill now.
Which lid is which in Canberra?
Red is general waste, and some older ACT general waste bins still have a dark green lid, which is the trap. Yellow is recycling, and glass goes in it because the ACT has no purple glass bin. Lime green is the optional garden waste bin. Dark green lid means rubbish. Lime green lid means garden.
Do you do this job in Canberra?
Removalists, recyclers, skip operators, clearance teams and organisers can apply for a labelled sponsored listing.