Know your bin night, every week.

Why this exists

Every Australian council runs its own waste collection schedule, and most of them publish the information across a half-dozen pages, a PDF calendar, and an address lookup form that doesn't always work on mobile. If you've ever stood at the kerb at 7:30pm wondering whether tonight is recycling or garden, you're not alone.

Bin Night Tonight does one thing and does it well. You enter your address. We talk to your council's system on your behalf, work out which bins go out and when, and show you the next four weeks at a glance. Free to use.

It's particularly useful for households that have just moved in, share a property with housemates who all forget on different weeks, or live in a council area that runs a fortnightly recycling and organics rotation (which is most of them).

How it works

1. Type your street address. We use OpenStreetMap to autocomplete, so even unusual or new-estate addresses come up.
2. We match it to your council. Behind the scenes we figure out which local government area covers your address.
3. We query your council's waste system. Most councils run their own bin lookup; we ask the same question their website would and read the answer.
4. You see the next four weeks. Bin icons, days, dates, and any bins that share a collection.

The whole thing usually takes two or three seconds. The result is the same as what your council would show you, just presented in a way that works on a phone at the front door.

What each bin colour means in Australia

Australian councils use the Australian Standard bin lid colour code, so the same lid means the same thing whether you're in Frankston, Geelong, Ballarat or Mildura.

• Red lid - General waste. Everything that can't be recycled or composted: soiled packaging, broken household items, soft toys, nappies. Usually collected weekly.
• Yellow lid - Recycling. Clean and dry paper, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, steel and aluminium cans, and rigid plastic containers. Usually fortnightly.
• Dark green lid - Garden organics. Grass clippings, leaves, prunings, small branches. Usually fortnightly, alternating with recycling.
• Lime green lid - FOGO. Food Organics and Garden Organics combined. Food scraps including meat, dairy and cooked food go in here in a compostable liner. Available in some councils only.
• Purple lid - Glass only. Some councils separate glass so it doesn't shatter and contaminate paper in the yellow bin. Usually monthly.

If your bin lid doesn't match this guide, your council may still be in the process of rolling out the new standard. Read the recycling guide for more detail on what goes in each bin.

Popular questions

When does Bin Night Tonight cover my address?

If your council is in one of the supported regions and runs a public address-lookup tool, you're covered. The coverage page lists every supported council. If yours isn't listed yet, we may still add it; we add new councils as their online systems become reliable enough to query.

What does it cost?

Nothing. The site is free to use. We show a single banner ad on the results screen to cover server costs and that's the whole business model. There are no premium tiers, no paywalls, no upsells.

Do you store my address?

No. Saved addresses live in your browser's local storage. We don't send them to any database, we don't share them with advertisers, and we don't keep a copy. If you clear your browser data, the addresses are gone. Read the privacy policy for the full detail.

What if the schedule is wrong?

The schedule we show is the same as your council's official source. If there's a discrepancy it's almost always either a public holiday adjustment that hasn't been published yet, or a recent address change that hasn't propagated through the council's system. When in doubt, your council's own website is the source of truth.

Can I get reminders?

Not yet, but it's on the roadmap. For now, the easiest approach is a recurring alarm on your phone set for the night before your usual collection day. If your council changes the day, a quick address search keeps you current.

Useful guides

If you're new to a council area or just want to make sure you're sorting correctly, these guides explain the parts most people get wrong.

• How to find your bin collection day in Australia: how council collection works and where to look for your specific day.
• What bin does it go in?: pizza boxes, soft plastics, batteries, nappies, and the other items that cause the most confusion.
• Recycling guide: what actually belongs in the yellow bin, and the common mistakes that cause contamination.
• FOGO and glass recycling: how food organics collections and dedicated glass bins work in councils that offer them.
• Public holiday bin collection: whether your bin day moves at Christmas, Easter and Australia Day.

See all guides, browse the full council coverage list, or jump straight to your suburb's bin day page.

What the results show you

After you enter your address, the results screen shows a four-week rolling calendar of your bin collections. Each entry shows the bin type by lid colour, the day and date, and how many days away it is. If two bins share a collection night, they appear together.

The schedule comes directly from your council's own waste system, so it reflects the same information their website would show you. For most councils this is a live query, meaning it picks up any updates the council has made, including public holiday adjustments when they are published.

The results are shareable and bookmark-friendly. Save your address in the app and it will be there the next time you open it, so checking takes one tap rather than typing your address again.

How to never miss bin night again

The most common reason people miss bin night is not forgetting which bins go out, but forgetting it is bin night at all. A few small habits fix that permanently.

• Save your address. The site stores saved addresses in your browser. Next time you open it, your address is already there and the next collection is one tap away.
• Set a recurring alarm. A weekly or fortnightly phone alarm for the night before your usual collection day costs you nothing to set up and works even when you haven't thought about bins all week.
• Check before long weekends. Most councils shift collections by one day when a public holiday falls on or before your usual day. A quick check the week before any long weekend takes ten seconds and saves a two-week wait.
• Know your cycle, not just your day. Recycling and garden organics are usually fortnightly and alternate with each other. Knowing you are on "yellow week" or "green week" matters as much as knowing the day.

All of this is available from a single address search. No setup needed.

Ready to check your bin day?

It takes about three seconds. No install needed, no data collected.