Merri-bek's 4-bin service is here

The way you use your bins at home changed in July 2023.

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 change the size of your bin if you need to. Click here to 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 your bins, including what can go in each bin.

4 wheelie bins in a row with different coloured lids that are open. There are hands above each bin, about to place and item in. from left to right: a hand is about to place a jar into the purple lidded bin, next a hand is about to place a plastic bottle i


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 is helping to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and improve the quality of recyclables in Victoria.

For more information on our 4-bin service, visit our main website: Bins and collection services (merri-bek.vic.gov.au)

For information on the Victorian Government's kerbside reform, visit their website: Standardising household recycling across Victoria | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)

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.

general rubbish bin made up of 44% food and garden waste, 11% recycling

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.


Community consultation

In 2020-21, we spoke to the Merri-bek community about changes to our kerbside waste service. Your feedback helped shape the 4-bin service. Find out more about our community consultation by clicking the button below.