By the Bin Night Tonight team · Updated July 2026
Every Australian shed has the shelf: half tins of paint from two house colours ago, mystery solvent, a rusting gas bottle, motor oil in a milk container. None of it can go in any kerbside bin, and all of it has a proper channel, most of them free. Here is the map.
Paint is the easy one. Paintback is a national industry funded scheme with well over a hundred permanent collection points, mostly at council transfer stations and some paint retailers, taking up to 100 litres per visit free. It accepts water based and oil based paint, varnishes, stains and wood coatings, in their original or clearly labelled containers.
If you just have a few millimetres left in a tin of water based paint, the pragmatic alternative is drying it out: leave the lid off, or stir in kitty litter or sand until solid, then the dried tin can go in general waste. Never pour paint down any drain; stormwater drains run to creeks, and sewer treatment cannot handle solvents.
For the harder stuff (pool chemicals, garden pesticides, cleaning chemicals, solvents, pharmaceuticals excepted), states run free household chemical collection programs: Victoria's Detox your Home, the NSW CleanOut events, and equivalent council run chemical collection days elsewhere. They accept the genuinely nasty shelf items with no questions asked, and the schedule is on your state environment authority or council website.
Two things they consistently want: keep chemicals in original containers where possible so they can be identified, and never mix leftovers together to save space. A mixed container of mystery chemistry is exactly what these events exist to prevent.
Unwanted medicines are their own stream: every pharmacy in Australia takes them back free under the Return of Unwanted Medicines program. Not the bin, not the toilet, just the chemist.
Used motor oil is accepted free at most council transfer stations, which have dedicated oil collection tanks; keep it in a sealed container and it gets re-refined. Car batteries go free to auto parts retailers, scrap dealers or transfer stations. Coolant and brake fluid ride along with the chemical collection events. None of this ever goes in a bin or down a drain; a litre of oil can contaminate a million litres of water, which is the statistic every transfer station poster quotes because it is true.
Gas bottles, including the small camping ones, are the most dangerous common item people try to bin. A pressurised or even empty bottle in a general waste truck or landfill compactor can explode, and they cause evacuations at sorting facilities regularly. The options, in order: swap it (barbecue bottle swap cages take rusty bottles and give you a filled one), refill it if it is in test date, or take it to a council transfer station, which accepts them for safe degassing, sometimes for a small fee. Aerosol cans, by contrast, are fine: completely empty aerosols go in the yellow recycling bin in most councils.
Yes. Water based paint dried completely solid (helped along with kitty litter or sand) can go in general waste with the lid off so collectors can see it is dry. Liquid paint of any kind cannot; take it to Paintback free.
Free household chemical collections: Detox your Home in Victoria, CleanOut in NSW, and council chemical collection days elsewhere. Keep them in original containers and never mix them. Your council website lists the next local event or permanent drop off.
Swap it at any bottle swap cage (they take rusty ones), or drop it at a council transfer station for degassing. Never put a gas bottle in any bin; they explode in compactors and are a leading cause of waste facility evacuations.