When is my council’s kerbside clean-up, and what will it take?

Booked and set-date clean-ups

In a booked service the household chooses the date. Blacktown’s page says a household can book up to 12 collections a year, at no extra fee, and that the next available date may be up to four weeks away. Canada Bay takes up to four bookings a financial year from houses and from units in small apartment blocks, and gives larger blocks four scheduled collections instead. Ku-ring-gai caps its service at four bookings per property a year, counted from 1 January. Lane Cove offers four free clean-up collections a year and advises booking in advance. Parramatta says the next available clean-up day may be up to four weeks away. Fairfield asks for at least two weeks’ notice, and Campbelltown’s four entitlements a calendar year reset on 1 January. Ryde needs at least 10 business days’ notice, and runs the clean-up on the same day as the regular bin collection. Sutherland takes two bookings a financial year for a house or small complex, and its own advice is to book early, because wait times can exceed eight weeks in busy periods.

In a set-date service the council decides when the truck comes. Hornsby runs two scheduled bulky waste collections a year, and items can go out from the weekend before the collection week. Bayside runs four scheduled clean-ups a year, with the dates on its waste calendar. Woollahra’s scheduled service takes larger household items that do not fit the red-lid bin. Willoughby gives a household one booked collection and three scheduled ones a year, Waverley runs one scheduled collection alongside two booked ones, and Randwick one scheduled collection alongside five booked ones. Burwood gives two clean-up collections a year: one on a date the council sets and one the household books.

What a clean-up refuses

Read down the Not collected column and the same kinds of thing come back, council after council. Paint, oils, chemicals and gas bottles are refused by Blacktown, Burwood, Fairfield, Penrith and The Hills. Batteries of any kind are refused by Fairfield, Penrith and Waverley. Car parts and tyres are refused by Blacktown, Canada Bay, Lane Cove and Sutherland. Building and demolition waste is refused by Wollondilly and by Hawkesbury, whose kerbside clean-up service is for residents on its domestic waste collection, and plate glass and mirrors are refused by Blacktown, Penrith and The Hills. Hornsby refuses televisions and computers outright, and Burwood and Strathfield put e-waste on their refusal lists too.

None of it is a dead end. Paint, gas bottles and batteries go to a Household Chemical CleanOut event or to a Community Recycling Centre, both free for household quantities. Solvents and pool chemicals go to a CleanOut event, and where paint, gas bottles, batteries and chemicals go in Sydney compares the two. Televisions, computers and phones each have their own drop-off route, worked through in the guide on old TVs, computers and phones. Asbestos can only go to a landfill licensed to accept it, and the asbestos guide carries the Sydney facilities and the form for a load you take there yourself. And at councils such as Parramatta and the City of Sydney, a pile put out without a booking, or earlier than the council allows, is illegal dumping, and Parramatta says it could result in a fine. Is it illegal to leave rubbish on the footpath in Sydney? is the guide for that line.

Asbestos is on more refusal lists than anything else, and the state rule behind them is the NSW EPA’s: you must never place asbestos waste in a kerbside bin, and the only lawful destination for it is a landfill licensed to accept it. Asbestos fibres are dangerous when the material is damaged or worked on. A section further down this page says who may remove it from a home, and when a licence is needed. If the material might contain asbestos, treat it as if it does: stop work, clear the site and get help, and never clean it with high-pressure water, or with an abrasive method like scrubbing, sanding or grinding, because the national agency says abrasive cleaning spreads contamination and can lead to an expensive clean-up. Queensland’s asbestos site says not to saw, sand, scrape or drill holes in asbestos materials. The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency’s page for householders sets out the precautions, and the NSW EPA’s dealing with household asbestos page is the state’s own guide.

When to put it out

The night before collection is the common instruction, worded that way by Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Liverpool, Penrith and Sutherland, and by Hawkesbury, whose guidelines for presenting material to the kerb for its clean-up ask for it then. A few allow longer: Bayside and Wollondilly allow up to 48 hours before, and Camden asks for the night before and never more than 48 hours. A few are tighter still: Ryde says one day before, no earlier and no later, and Strathfield asks for the items within 24 hours of the booking. The Hills asks for the night before, and warns that anything earlier may incur a penalty without written council approval. The reason the window matters is that it is where a clean-up ends and dumping begins: Georges River says items put out earlier than permitted for a confirmed booking will be treated as illegal dumping, and Campbelltown’s terms say a kerbside pile with no booking is illegal dumping.