Which bin goes out this week?
The short version: your general waste bin almost certainly goes out this week, because most Australian councils collect it weekly. What changes week to week is which second bin goes out beside it, and that alternates between mixed recycling and garden organics on a fortnightly cycle.
Which one is due at your place this week depends on your council, your collection zone and, after a public holiday, on whether your council shifted the week. There is no national answer, which is why the fastest way to settle it is to check your own address.
Get the answer for your street
Enter your address and we will read your council's own schedule to show exactly which bins are due at your next collection, and which night to put them out.
Check my bin dayWhat the bin colours mean
Anything that is not recyclable or compostable. Soft plastics, nappies, broken crockery, polystyrene.
Usually weekly, so it goes out most weeks no matter which week you are on.
Hard plastics, paper, cardboard, steel and aluminium cans. Glass too, unless your council has a separate glass bin.
Usually fortnightly, alternating with the organics bin.
Grass, prunings and leaves. Where the service is FOGO, food scraps as well.
Usually fortnightly, on the weeks the recycling bin stays in.
Glass bottles and jars, with no lids and nothing else.
Where it exists, often monthly or every four weeks rather than fortnightly.
Lid colours follow an Australian standard that most councils apply, but not all of them and not on every bin. See the colour question below for where it breaks down.
Working it out without a lookup
Think back to your last collection. If the yellow recycling bin went out, the green organics bin is next. If the green bin went out, this week is recycling.
If your bins have been missed, or you have just moved in, the count is broken and guessing from the calendar will not recover it. Councils do not run a universal odd or even week system, so a date alone tells you nothing.
Common questions
Is it red or yellow bin this week?
In most of Australia the red lid general waste bin goes out every week, so the real question is whether the yellow recycling bin joins it. Recycling and organics usually alternate fortnightly, so if you put recycling out last week, this week is almost certainly the organics bin instead. Checking your address is the only way to be sure, because the alternation is set per street and a public holiday can shift it.
What colour bin goes out tonight?
That depends on your council and your street, not on the date alone. Red or dark green is general waste, yellow is mixed recycling, green or lime green is garden organics or FOGO, and purple is glass. Which of them is due tonight comes from your collection zone, so enter your address and you will see the exact bins for your next collection.
How do I know which week I am on?
Look at what you put out last time. If the recycling bin went out at the last collection, the organics bin is next, and the other way around. If you have just moved in or cannot remember, an address lookup gives you the answer without having to work it out, and it stays right through public holiday shifts that break the count.
Why is my neighbour putting out a different bin?
If they are across a council boundary, they are on a different schedule entirely, which is common in split postcodes and on the edges of inner city suburbs. Within one council it can also happen where a street sits on the boundary between two collection zones. Both cases resolve the same way: look it up by full address rather than by suburb or postcode.
Do the bin colours mean the same thing everywhere in Australia?
Mostly, but not reliably enough to act on. The Australian standard sets red for general waste, yellow for recycling, lime green for FOGO and purple for glass, and most councils follow it. Older bins in the same street can still have dark green general waste lids from before the standard, some South Australian councils use a blue lid for general waste, and Victoria is midway through a four bin rollout that neighbouring councils are at different stages of.
What happens to the cycle after a public holiday?
Many councils push the whole week back by a day, which changes the night your bins go out but not which bins are due. A few councils skip a collection entirely, and that does shift the alternation. Because our lookup reads the council system directly, it reflects a published holiday adjustment as soon as the council makes one.
Related guides
- What goes in which bin, item by item
- Public holiday bin collections, and when your day moves
- FOGO and glass recycling, the newer bins
- Councils we cover