By the Bin Night Tonight team · Updated July 2026
A newborn household gets through fifty or more nappies a week, which makes the bin question urgent and the smell question more urgent. The bin part has a one word answer. The rest of this guide is about making that answer liveable.
Every nappy, from every brand, goes in the general waste bin. Not the yellow bin, ever: a nappy in recycling is contamination that can condemn the whole load, and sorting facilities report nappies as one of their most common and least pleasant contaminants. Not the green bin either, including nappies marketed as biodegradable or eco; no Australian kerbside organics service accepts them, because they do not break down in commercial composting and the compost ends up rejected.
The same applies to wipes, even flushable ones (which also do not belong in the toilet; ask any water utility about fatbergs), liners, and disposable change mats. Red bin, all of it.
The real problem is that general waste in many areas shares its week with nothing, and a week of summer nappies is a biohazard with a lid. The tactics that actually work:
Many councils quietly solve this: households with children in nappies, or with medical waste like continence aids, can apply for a larger general waste bin or an extra bin, often free or discounted where the need is medical. The option is usually buried under "additional bins" on the council website, and it typically lapses when the need does. If you have twins in nappies and a 120 litre bin, this is the fix, not the overflowing lid.
Some councils that run fortnightly general waste under FOGO systems also offer a weekly general waste upgrade for nappy households. If your area has fortnightly red bin collection, check for exactly this concession.
Cloth nappies keep an estimated 5,000 plus disposables per child out of landfill, and several councils pay rebates of 50 to 150 dollars toward modern cloth nappy purchases; search your council name plus cloth nappy rebate. Nobody pretends they are for everyone, and even part time use (cloth at home, disposables out and overnight) halves the red bin load. Solids get flushed, the nappy gets machine washed, and nothing goes to the kerb at all.
No. No Australian kerbside organics service accepts nappies of any kind, including certified compostable ones. Commercial composters cannot process them, and one nappy can get an organics load rejected. They go in general waste.
Ask your council about a larger or additional general waste bin. Most councils offer them for households with children in nappies or medical needs, often free or discounted for medical waste, and some FOGO councils offer weekly instead of fortnightly red bin collection for exactly this case.
General waste, always, including wipes labelled flushable or plant based. They do not compost kerbside and they do not belong in the toilet, where they cause blockages that water utilities spend millions clearing.