Merri-bek's new 4-bin service is here
The way you use your bins at home has changed.
You need to sort your waste into 4 different bins:
- Food and garden organics (light green lid) collected weekly
- General rubbish (red or dark green lid) collected weekly
- Mixed recycling (yellow lid) collected fortnightly/every 2 weeks
- Glass recycling (purple lid) collected monthly/every 4 weeks.
You can now change the size of your bin. Upsize or downsize your food and garden organics, mixed recycling or glass recycling bin capacity.
Click or tap on the hot spots in the image below to explore the changes to your bins, including what can now go in each bin.

The Victorian Government is standardising household waste and recycling services across the state. All Victorian council kerbside services will move to a 4-bin system.
The 4-bin service will help reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and improve the quality of recyclables in Victoria.
For more information on our new 4-bin service, visit our main website: merri-bek.vic.gov.au/bins
For information on how these changes might affect you, scroll down to explore our household personas.
Small acts make a big impact
It might seem like a small thing to sort your waste into 4 bins, but it makes a big impact when we all do it correctly.
Recycling well and reducing waste helps keep valuable resources out of landfill, so they can be turned into new things, like glass jars, mulch and compost.
Food thrown into your general rubbish bin ends up in landfill, which creates greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. By putting food waste in the food and garden organics bin, we can almost halve the amount of waste sent to landfill.
The new 4-bin service can help us get closer to our goals of zero waste to landfill and zero carbon emissions.
How might the changes affect your household?

Mahmoud
has a large family
I live with my wife, 3 kids and my elderly parents. My wife is a stay at home carer and we often fill our bins.

Max
has young children in nappies
We have a 2-year old, and a newborn baby. We generate a lot of nappy waste.

Maddy
lives in a rental property with housemates
Between the 4 of us, our recycling and food and garden organics bins fill up quickly.

Milo
lives in a small household
My partner and I don’t create that much waste with just the 2 of us at home.

Melek
lives alone
I live alone and don't create much waste and recycling. I don't really need bigger bins.

Mackenzie
and her family are a low waste household
We actively try to avoid creating waste where possible and have our own compost bin for food scraps.

Malina
lives in a townhouse
I live in a townhouse development with 5 other townhouses. How will I store 4 bins?

Melissa
lives in a block of units
Our unit block has 15 units. We don’t have much room to store bins in our common area.
Mei
lives in a large apartment building
I live in a big apartment building with 25 apartments. We don't have enough space for all the bins.

Mick
is an older person on a pension
I’ve been living here for 40 years. I’m on a pension and need help moving the big bins.

Mario
has a medical condition that creates extra waste
I live with a medical condition that creates extra waste. My general rubbish bin can quickly fill up.

Martina
is a business owner
My business uses Council’s waste service. With more people shopping online, we have more packaging waste.