Reduce your food waste in Brisbane

Hi, 

Thanks for your enquiry. The food waste recycling service is now available to over 12,000 households in Brisbane.  Search your address on Council’s bin calendar to find out if you’re eligible to participate in the food waste recycling service. The bin calendar is available on:  

• Brisbane Bin and Recycling App – it’s free to download and available for mobile devices.  
• Bin calendar on Council’s website – search ‘bin calendar’ from the home page from your desktop or mobile device.  

If your address is included in the service, a green banner will display at the top indicating your address is eligible and the calendar will show ‘Garden and Food’ for day of service. 

If you’re not included in the service area, you can continue to reduce waste and recycle your food waste by participating in some of Council’s programs:

• Compost at home. Our Compost Rebate Program allows you to claim up to $100 for eligible composting equipment and $200 for food waste recycling equipment, if you haven’t already. 
• Drop-off your food scraps to a local Community Composting Hub or discover a neighbour who is taking food waste through ShareWaste.  
• Find tools, tips and resources to reduce your food waste with the Save Money Save Food program  
• Attend free composting and worm farm workshops throughout the year, including an advanced Master Composter course. 

Thanks, 

The Behaviour Change Team

Communications and Engagement, Waste and Resource Recovery Services 

City Standards | Brisbane Infrastructure | BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL

Hi Barb, 

Thanks for your question. Council has reduced the cost of the green waste recycling service to less than $1 a week ($45 annually). You can order a green waste recycling bin on Council’s website or you can call Council on 07 3403 8888. The items you can dispose of in your green waste bin include:   

• grass clippings 
• small garden pruning’s from shrubs and trees (offcuts, roots, tubers) 
• palm fronds, twigs, small branches, leaves and loose bark 
• weeds, ivy, creepers and vines (including noxious weeds as the recycling process destroys seeds within the final composted material). 
•  

Search your address on Council’s bin calendar to find out if you’re eligible to participate in the food waste recycling service. The bin calendar is available on:

• Brisbane Bin and Recycling App – it’s free to download and available for mobile devices. 
• Bin calendar on Council’s website – search ‘bin calendar’ from the home page from your desktop or mobile device. 

If your address is included in the service, a green banner will be displayed at the top indicating your address is eligible and the calendar will show ‘Garden and Food’ for day of service.

• Compost rebate program – an increased rebate of $100 for the purchase of eligible composting equipment and a new $200 rebate for the purchase of food waste recycling equipment  
• Free compost and worm farm workshops, including the Master Composter course  
• Community Composting Hub or discover a neighbour who is taking food waste through ShareWaste
• Save Money Save Food challenge – lots of tools, tips and resources to reduce your food waste.  

We hope this information has been helpful.

Behaviour Change Team,

Waste and Resource Recovery Services

Hi Deb,

Thanks for your enquiry. The food waste recycling service is now available to over 12 000 households in Brisbane. 

Search your address on Council’s bin calendar to find out if you’re eligible to participate in the food waste recycling service. The bin calendar is available on:

• Brisbane Bin and Recycling App – it’s free to download and available for mobile devices. 
• Bin calendar on Council’s website – search ‘bin calendar’ from the home page from your desktop or mobile device. 

If your address is included in the service, a green banner will be displayed at the top indicating your address is eligible and the calendar will show ‘Garden and Food’ for day of service.

If you’re not included in the service area, you can continue to reduce waste and recycle your food waste by participating in some of Council’s programs:

• Compost at home. Our Compost Rebate Program allows you to claim up to $100 for eligible composting equipment and $200 for food waste recycling equipment, if you haven’t already.
• Drop-off your food scraps to a local Community Composting Hub or discover a neighbour who is taking food waste through ShareWaste. 
• Find tools, tips and resources to reduce your food waste with the Save Money Save Food program 
• Attend free composting and worm farm workshops throughout the year, including an advanced Master Composter course. The next Master Composter workshop takes place in April, please register your interest now to secure a spot as spaces are limited. 

Behaviour Change Team

Waste and Resource Recovery Services

Thank you for contacting Council about your interest in the Food Waste Recycling Service. At the moment, the service is limited to the suburbs and streets currently taking part and this includes approximately 12,000 homes. Council is researching and considering ways that would allow many more homes to recycle their food waste.  

Even though you may not be in the food waste recycling service area, you can continue to reduce waste and recycle your food waste by participating in some of Council’s programs:

• Compost at home. Our Compost Rebate Program allows you to claim up to $100 for eligible composting equipment and $200 for food waste recycling equipment, if you haven’t already.
• Drop-off your food scraps to a local Community Composting Hub or discover a neighbour who is taking food waste through ShareWaste. 
• Find tools, tips and resources to reduce your food waste with the Save Money Save Food program 
• Attend free composting and worm farm workshops throughout the year, including an advanced Master Composter course. The next Master Composter workshop takes place in April, please register your interest now to secure a spot as spaces are limited. 

Behaviour Change Team

Waste and Resource Recovery Services 

Thank you for your question. Council is exploring alternative food waste recovery solutions for multi-unit dwellings (including high-rises) and will be collaborating with other SEQ Councils, researchers and Urban Utilities. 

The community gardens at Jane Street, West End will welcome your compost once they reopen after their renovations. Please keep an eye on our website for when the gardens reopen. In the meantime, you may wish to take your food scraps to a Council community compost hub nearby. You can also continue to reduce waste and recycle your food scraps with Council's free waste minimisation programs:

• Compost rebate program – an increased rebate of $100 for the purchase of eligible composting equipment and a new $200 rebate for the purchase of food waste recycling equipment  
• Free compost and worm farm workshops, including the Master Composter course  
• Save Money Save Food challenge – lots of tools, tips and resources to reduce your food waste. 

Thanks, 

Behaviour Change Team, 

Waste and Resource Recovery Services

Hi,  

Thanks for reaching out.  More than 12,000 households are in Brisbane’s food waste recycling service area. Only residents living in the food waste recycling service area can dispose of food waste in their green lid garden waste bin.

If you already have a green waste bin (with a light green lid), an easy way to find out if your address is in the food waste recycling service area is by entering your address in the Council bin collection calendar. If it is, it will display the weeks the food and garden waste will be collected.  

If you do NOT currently have a garden waste collection bin (light green lid bin) you can call our contact centre on 07 3403 8888 to arrange this for your address at an annual cost of $45. For more information, please visit the green waste recycling service page of Council's webpage. 

 The items you can dispose of in your green bin waste include:  

• grass clippings
• small garden prunings from shrubs and trees (offcuts, roots, tubers)
• palm fronds, twigs, small branches, leaves and loose bark
• weeds, ivy, creepers and vines (including noxious weeds as the recycling process destroys seeds within the final composted material).

If your property is not in the food waste recycling service area, you can continue to reduce waste and recycle your food scraps. Council supports residents to reduce food waste with:

• Compost rebate program – an increased rebate of $100 for the purchase of eligible composting equipment and a new $200 rebate for the purchase of food waste recycling equipment 
• Free compost and worm farm workshops, including the Master Composter course 
• Save Money Save Food challenge – lots of tools, tips and resources to reduce your food waste. 

Thanks,

Behaviour Change Team, 

Waste and Resource Recovery Services

Hi Lou, thanks for your question.

Tea bags are acceptable in the food waste recycling service. You don’t need to take them apart.

Hi, thanks for your question. I’m glad to hear you have a green waste recycling service. 

If you are within the select addresses of the expansion of the food waste recycling service, you will be contacted directly and provided a kitchen caddy. 

Hi, thanks for your question. Unfortunately, Coopers Plains in not within the food waste recycling service area at this point in time. You can view the expanded service areas on the food waste recycling service webpage.

Households will be notified directly and in advance of the service becoming available in their area. In the meantime, you can continue to reduce and recycle your food scraps:

• Find tools, tips and resources to reduce your food waste with the Save Money Save Food program
• Compost at home – claim a rebate for eligible composting equipment if you haven’t already. Please note, Council prioritises composting at home over a collection service, so we highly encourage you to use the rebate offering. Council is expanding this rebate to $100 from January 2024.   
• Drop-off your food scraps to a local community composting hub or discover a neighbour who is taking food waste through ShareWaste.
• Attend free composting workshops, including a free Master Composter course to prime your composting skills.

Hi, thanks for your question and great to hear that you have a green bin. If you are in the selected areas of the food waste recycling service a free kitchen caddy will be delivered to your property to assist you to collect your food scraps.