Standardising household recycling across Victoria

More and better recycling

We're standardising household waste and recycling services across the state. This will make it easier for people to sort materials at home so we can get more value from our precious resources and reduce waste and landfill.

Households that receive waste and recycling services from local councils and Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV), will have access to the new standardised 4-stream system with separate services for:

glass recycling
food organics and garden organics (FOGO)
mixed recycling
general rubbish.

Separation of household waste and recycling into the 4 material streams helps reduce contamination. It increases the volume and quality of materials we can recover for recycling and reuse and allows us to get the most value from our resources.

Victorian householders currently send 4 million tonnes of material to landfill each year. This new system will significantly reduce this unsustainable amount of waste.

Setting the standard for better recycling at home

Household waste and recycling services will be regulated by Recycling Victoria via regulations and a service standard made under the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021 (the CE Act).

The CE Act requires councils and ARV to provide the 4-stream services to households. The service standard will set out how councils and ARV must deliver these services.

A service standard is a legal instrument that is made under the CE Act. Service standards can be made to provide for the quality and performance of any waste, recycling and resource recovery services. This means that they can apply to any provider of these services and all waste streams, including commercial and industrial waste, and construction and demolition waste.
The first service standard will apply to household waste and recycling services provided by councils and ARV and their contractors. It will cover bin lid colours, what items are accepted in each stream and requirements for delivering kerbside services and drop-off locations.
The Service Standards Framework explains what service standards are, who they can apply to and how they are made.

Service standard framework
PDF 700.39 KB

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Service standard framework - accessible version
Word 3.23 MB

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Transition to the new system is underway

We are working closely with councils and ARV to support the transition to the new system. We are providing funding and assisting with planning and implementation processes, roll-out of new bins, delivery of critical infrastructure, and drop-off point upgrades.

Councils and ARV will determine what is best for their communities, consistent with the service standard. Households will access the four-stream system either through kerbside bins or a drop-off service.

Bin lids for each stream will also be colour-coded:

purple for glass recycling
lime green for FOGO
yellow for mixed recycling
red for general rubbish.

Councils will decide on bin sizes and collection frequency which will vary, depending on local circumstances.

4 bin stream, purple, green, yellow and red bins

Victorians are helping shape the new system

June-August 2024: Consultation on proposed regulations and service standard

Sept-Oct 2022: Consultation on service standard framework and discussion paper

Nov 2021-Jan 2022: Consultation on standard lists

For more information regarding past and current engagements, visit Engage Victoria.

Updated 12 November 2024