Your waste services
The following information details Maitland City Council's waste collection and recycling services, along with some helpful resources and tips so that we can all do our part for the environment and future generations.
When you move into an existing property you should have bins at your home. You inherit the services arranged for that property from the previous owners. Should your waste needs differ from the previous owners please contact Council to set up what waste requirements best suit you.
Your bins
All rate paying residents have access to three bins, which are allocated to separate our waste products, to reduce our environmental impact and to divert as much waste as possible from landfill. There are various options available to best meet residents waste needs, such as two recycling bin sizes; a 240L and 360L bin, as well as options to order additional waste, recycling and garden organic bins over and above the allocated domestic package of three bins.
To find out more about what can go in which bin, when your collection day is, how to order a bin or what to do if your bin was missed, damaged or stolen, go to your kerbside bin.
Household tip voucher
Every year, Council provides a tip voucher to each household. Households can utilise the voucher, once every financial year, to dispose of up to 400 kilograms of waste for no charge at Mount Vincent Waste Management Centre. To redeem, don't forget to bring along your tip voucher and residential identification.
Illegal dumping and littering
Illegal dumping and littering is not just unsightly, it puts the environment and our health and safety at risk. For the 2019/2020 financial year Council collected roughly 80 tonnes of illegally dumped waste, which costs the community to remove it. It is up to all of us to do our part.
Find out what you can do about illegal dumping or littering.
The introduction of the garden organics service has been an overwhelming success. By partnering with Cessnock and Singleton Councils we have been able to provide this cost efficient service to Maitland residents to reduce waste. Since its implementation in March 2017, almost 25,000 tonne of garden organics have been collected and diverted from landfill.
Moreover, the material collected is processed at a purpose built facility in Tea Gardens by Australian Native Landscapes (ANL) into a high quality compost / soil conditioner used by farmers and home gardeners.
We regularly conduct give away events of sample bags of ‘Your Garden Organics Compost’ to demonstrate the quality product produced from the garden organic material collected in the green bins. Keep an eye on upcoming council events and our Facebook page for dates.
More than a third of all household waste is food! If you add up all the food Australia wastes each year it's enough to fill 450, 000 garbage trucks. The hidden impact? When you throw out food you also waste the water, fuel and resources it took to get the food from the paddock to your plate.
Love Food Hate Waste has food smart program that has a six step guide to reducing food waste at home. By following these simple steps we can help reduce our impact on the environment and our hip pocket:
- Know your waste - Knowing how much food you throw away is one of the best ways to motivate yourself to take action.
- Plan your meals - Meal planning will not only save you time and money, but also help you and your family enjoy a healthy and balanced diet.
- Shop with a list - Make a list of what you need before you go.
- Perfect portions - Cooking or preparing the right amount of food is one of the best ways to save money and reduce food waste.
- Keep it fresh - Store food correctly, to keep it fresh for longer.
- Love your leftovers - Utilise your leftovers, they can make a quick, easy and delicious meal.
Another fun way to reduce household waste is through composting and worm farms. Most organic matter is suitable for home composting and the organic matter breaks down into a cheap non-polluting natural and effective garden fertilizer. It's a win, win. In fact, worms can consume and compact waste so well that they can reduce the volume of organic matter by 95%.
Learn more about composting and how to set up a worm farm.
Cans, plastic and glass bottles make up a large proportion of the litter on our streets, beaches and green spaces. Return and Earn is a way for us all to help solve the litter problem and be rewarded for our efforts.
Please see the return and earn website for details on eligible containers.
Some items cannot be placed in your kerbside bins and require special treatment. The best way to dispose of hazardous, old or unwanted problem wastes is through one of the following community programs and events or at the Community Recycling Centre, located at Mt Vincent Waste Management Centre.
Community Recycling Centre are for householders to drop off their problem waste, free of charge all year round.
You can drop off items like gas bottles, fire extinguishers, paints, fluoro globes and tubes, smoke detectors, motor oils and other oils as well as car and household batteries.
Community Programs/ Events - Council holds many waste and recycling initiatives and events throughout the year which include, but are not limited to:
Household Chemical Cleanout
DrumMuster
Mattress Muster
Compost giveaway
These recycling initiatives and events have significantly reduced our consumption to landfill. To date Council has run 6 compost giveaways thanks to the garden organics service and received more than 9000 mattresses in 13 musters. Since 2016, Maitland has also held 7 chemical cleanout events which has resulted in the recycling/disposal of just over 54 Tonnes of potentially hazardous household chemicals.
Find out more on problem waste and how to dispose of it safely.
On average, the general domestic waste bin contains 20% of recyclable material that could have gone into the yellow top recycling bin. So we have pulled together the following resources so that we can all become smarter recyclers.
Hunter Resource Recovery (HRR) is an initiative of Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Singleton and Maitland City Council to manage the kerbside recycling service. HRR have an A-Z guide of what can be recycled.
Statistics provided by HRR indicate that on average each property recycled 173.57 kilos for the year, which works out to be 6.42 kilos per fortnight. This simple task of recycling since 1997 has reduced greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 13, 474 cars off the road permanently!
Check out HRR's 12 tips to recycling.
To learn more about what Maitland City Council provides to the community, to divert our recyclables from landfill, take a look at our Green Communities recycling brochure.
Recycling or trash?
Recycling near you have pulled together 7 interesting myth busting facts to assist us recycle right.
You can also take a fun, interactive 5 minute quiz to test your knowledge on what you CAN and CANNOT recycle.
Take the quiz
Quiz supplied by recyclingnearyou