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What to put in the yellow-top bin

Still confused about what goes into your yellow top recycling bin? Here’s a simple guide.

June 11, 2020

WA produces almost 20% more waste annually than the national average. So, to make things easier for households to sort their recycling, new guidelines have been brought in across all Perth metropolitan councils. This will make it easier to do the right thing when it comes to protecting our environment.

Empty and clean items which can go into your yellow-top recycling bin

  • Glass bottles and jars. They should be clean & empty with lids removed. Metal lids can go into the recycling bin separately.
  • Cartons (e.g.fresh milk cartons) but not those with a silver lining (such as most UHT milk cartons).
  • Paper (clean and not shredded). Envelopes with a plastic window can be recycled & magazines with staples.
  • Cardboard boxes (including cereal boxes) flattened.
  • Rigid plastic containers (apart from meat trays) – clean and empty.
  • Plastic bottles – clean and empty with lids removed. The lids cannot be recycled in your yellow top bin.
  • Aluminium cans – clean and empty.
  • Steel cans – clean and empty – lids can also be recycled.

The following items do not belong in your yellow top bin

  • Bagged items
  • Soft ‘scrunchable’ plastics’
  • Clothes or other textiles
  • Nappies, food or garden waste
  • Gas bottles, aerosols or batteries
  • Polystyrene products & takeaway coffee cups
  • Items marked ‘compostable’ or ‘biodegradeable’
  • Meat trays – even clean they are a contaminant risk

5 Common recycling mistakes

  1. Failure to place items in the correct bin. Recyclable products may end up in landfill rather than enter the sorting process – resulting in lost resources.
  2. Large volumes of recyclable materials may be contaminated by items that should have been placed in the general waste bin – such as takeaway coffee cups.
  3. Not rinsing items (such as food containers or shampoo/conditioner bottles). The residue can contaminate other recyclable materials resulting in more being sent to landfill.
  4. Not removing lids from plastic or glass containers or placing items in plastic bags. This hinders the sorting process and may result in items being incorrectly sorted or being unnecessarily diverted to landfill.
  5. Disposing of nappies in the yellow-top bin. Believe it or not, nappies are one of the biggest contaminants in WA’s household recycling bins. Regardless of what they are made from, nappies should only ever be placed in the general waste bin.

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