When is bin day in my area?
Last updated: August 2026 · Maintained by the Bin Night Tonight team
Your bin day is set by your council, and within a council it is set street by street. Here is the fastest way to get yours, and how to work it out manually if your council is not covered.
The short answer
Enter your street address. We work out which council covers it, query that council's own waste system, and show the next four weeks of collections with the bins for each one. It takes a few seconds and covers 244 councils.
Find my bin dayWhy finding your bin day is harder than it should be
In Australia, kerbside waste collection is run by your local council, not by a national service. There are 537 local councils across the country, each with its own collection schedule, its own bin colours (mostly standardised, sometimes not), and its own way of telling residents when to put bins out.
The good news is that most councils publish their schedules online. The bad news is that they publish them in different places and different formats. Some councils have a slick address-lookup tool. Some bury the information three clicks deep under "Waste & Recycling". A handful only publish a PDF calendar that you have to download and read.
If you've just moved house, or you're checking on behalf of an elderly parent, the easiest approach is to use a single tool that knows where to look for each council. That's what Bin Night Tonight does.
The fastest way: use a unified lookup
Enter your street address on the Bin Night Tonight home page. We'll figure out which council covers your address, query that council's own waste system, and show you the next four weeks of collections.
This works for the 244 councils we currently support. If your council isn't yet in our coverage, you can use one of the manual methods below or request your council via the contact page.
The manual way: go through your council's website
- Find your council. Search "[your suburb] council" in any search engine. The first result is usually right. If you're in a rural area, your council may cover a region larger than your nearest town.
- Look for "Waste", "Bins", or "Rubbish". Almost every council has a top-level section by one of those names. If you can't find it on the main nav, try the site search.
- Look for a lookup tool. Many councils have a "When is my bin day?" form where you enter your address. Use it if available; it's the most accurate source.
- If there's only a calendar, find your zone. Some councils publish a PDF calendar split into zones (A, B, C, etc). The same page usually has a zone-lookup tool to tell you which zone your address belongs to.
The whole process usually takes five to ten minutes the first time, then much less once you know where to look.
What to do if you've just moved
Moving into a new place is the most common reason to suddenly need this information. A few practical tips:
- Ask the previous occupants or your neighbours. The fastest source is someone who has been doing it for years. If the bins are already at the property, take a photo of the lid colours to confirm which bins you have.
- Confirm with the council. Different streets in the same suburb can have different days. Verify by entering the new address into a lookup, not by assuming it matches the suburb.
- Check the cycle, not just the day. Most councils alternate recycling and garden organics fortnightly. Knowing it's "Wednesday" isn't enough; you also need to know whether tonight is yellow week or green week.
- Set a reminder. Calendar export from Bin Night Tonight gives you a recurring event for each collection, which is the most reliable way to stop forgetting after the first month.
If your new property is in a brand-new estate, the council may not have updated its records yet. In that case, the developer's settlement pack often includes a temporary schedule.
Knowing the bin colours
The Australian Standard bin lid colour code is fairly consistent across councils:
- Red lid: general waste, usually collected weekly.
- Yellow lid: mixed recycling (paper, cardboard, glass, cans, hard plastics), usually fortnightly.
- Dark green lid: garden organics, usually fortnightly.
- Lime green lid: combined Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO), in councils that offer it.
- Purple lid: glass only, in councils that separate it.
For a more detailed breakdown of what goes in each, see the recycling guide and the FOGO and glass guide.
Find it for your council
Every one of these has a page listing its suburbs and how its collection works. If yours is not here, browse by state below.
Or browse every council by state: VIC, NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, WA, NT, ACT.
Common questions
When is bin day in my area?
It depends on your street, not just your suburb, because councils divide their area into collection zones and a zone boundary can run down the middle of a suburb. Enter your address on Bin Night Tonight and we will read your council's own schedule and show the next four weeks of collections, including which bins go out on each one.
How do I find my bin day after moving house?
Do not assume the new place matches the old one, or even matches the rest of the suburb. Look it up by full street address. If the bins are already at the property, photograph the lid colours so you know which services the address actually has, since not every household in a council area gets the same set.
What time should I put my bin out?
Most councils want bins at the kerb by 6am on collection day, which is why the useful answer is the night before rather than the morning of. Putting them out the evening before is fine in almost every council. Keep them clear of driveways and parked cars so the truck's mechanical arm can reach them.
What if I miss bin night?
For general waste you will usually wait a week, or a fortnight if your council collects it fortnightly. Many councils accept a missed collection report through their website, and most want to hear about it within 24 hours of the scheduled pickup.
Do public holidays change my collection day?
In most councils a public holiday pushes the affected collections forward by one day for the rest of that week, though a good number of Queensland councils collect straight through. Christmas, New Year and Easter cause the longest disruption. Our public holiday guide covers how the four different council approaches work.
My council is not supported. What now?
Search your council name plus "bin collection" and look for an address lookup on their site, which is the most accurate source when one exists. Where a council only publishes a zone PDF, the same page usually has a zone finder to tell you which zone your address falls in. You can also request your council through our contact page.