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Please note: Cheapest Load of Rubbish does NOT provide services related to Council pick-ups or pre-booked Council clean-ups. While we provide comprehensive information about Council rubbish removal, Cheapest Load of Rubbish is a private company offering alternative solutions for your rubbish removal needs. For specific details and regulations regarding your Council’s pick-up schedules, bin guidelines, and clean-up programs, please refer directly to your local Council’s website or contact them for assistance.

In Sydney, rubbish removal is a responsibility for every household and their local Council. Since each Council region has its own unique demography, the local Councils’ rules for rubbish collection are also different. To dispose of rubbish properly we need to learn the Do’s and Don’ts.

In this blog, we will explain the general rules and services for rubbish removal in Sydney that will answer many of your questions. To check specific conditions, find and contact your local Council.

Do’s

• Check bin collection days and place bins out the night before.
• Place all waste in your bins and close the lid, making sure not to overfill.
• Learn how to sort your rubbish and put in appropriate bins.
• Retrieve and store your bins on your property within 24 hours after collection.
• Check guidelines to ensure you only put Council accepted rubbish in your bins.

Don’t

• Don’t place bags or boxes next to the bin, they won’t be collected.
• Don’t overfill your bin, this makes the bin harder to pick up.
• Don’t pack bins too tightly, collection vehicles can’t pick up heavy bins.
• Don’t put bins out earlier than the night before collection.
• Don’t put your bins in a spot that can block pedestrian, bicycle or vehicle access.
• Don’t leave your bin out on the footpath or street after collection.
• Don’t put rubbish in the wrong bin.

What clean-up services are provided by the Council?

Each local Council in Sydney will have its own information website to showcase all services regarding rubbish and recycling. In general, the two services that are provided by the local Council is:

• Residential rubbish removal (wheelie bins).
• Pre-booked Council Clean-up.

What are residential bins?

These are the red, yellow and green bins that you can see garbage trucks collecting once or twice a week. Red is for general waste, yellow is for recycling and green is for garden waste.

When you move to a new place, make sure you find these different coloured bins and learn what should go into each. On your Council’s website, there are detailed lists, bin stickers, posters and videos that explain exactly what you should and should not put into each bin.

How do I request new bins for my property?

To add new bins or make changes, you can complete request forms on your Council’s website or call you local Council. If you live in an apartment, check with your building manager.

How much rubbish can I place out for collection?

You can only place rubbish inside your bin. Additional bags of rubbish left out on the kerb will not be collected. Additionally, they are considered to be illegally dumped rubbish and can attract hefty fines.

If your bin is not big enough, consider ways to Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle before ordering a new or bigger bin.

Where should I put the bins for collection?

If you live in a house, put your bins near the kerb and in a spot where they won’t block people or the garbage truck collecting your rubbish. After the rubbish has been removed, take the bins back to your property as soon as possible.

If you live in an apartment, check with your building manager where the rubbish chute or rubbish room is.

When do trucks come to collect rubbish?

This may be a different day for different Council’s, but generally red and yellow bins are collected on a particular day, each week or fortnight. Depending on your Council’s rules, the green organic waste bins may be collected less frequently. However, make sure you check with your Council as all areas will be different.

When should I put the bins out?

The night before collection day is the best. If you put the bins out too early, passers-by may add to the pile and overfill your bin. If you put the bins out too late, you may miss the garbage trucks that can come as early as 5am in some areas.

Can I get a pick-up service to collect big items?

Yes, all Councils should offer a pick-up service (also known as a Council Clean Up) for bulky items that can’t go into a bin. Generally, this service is only provided twice a year. You will need to book the service online or by phone and follow specific instructions of your Council.

If you live in an apartment, ask your building manager to make a booking. If your building doesn’t have one, call your local Council to get help.

What will the Council take in the Council Clean Up?

In general, your Council should pick up:

• Mattresses.
• Furniture and bulky household items.
• Whitegoods (eg. Refrigerators, Washing Machines).
• Green waste (generally must be bundled together).
• E-waste (eg. TVs, Computers, Printers).

Check your local Council’s information page for detailed lists of what can be collected.

What won’t the Council take in the Council Clean Up?

In general, your Council will not pick up:

• Food and general waste.
• Building, renovation or demolition material.
• Household chemicals.
• Heavy or extra-large items.
• Car parts.
• Commercial waste.

Be sure to check out your local Council’s collection list so that you don’t break any rules and find rubbish left behind. Leaving rejected Council Clean Up rubbish out the front of your property can still be considered as dumping and can attract fines.

How much waste can my Council pick up?

This depends on your local Council’s rules. Generally, most Council’s ask you to keep it within one box trailer load (2m x 1.2m x 1m).

Is it illegal to leave furniture on the kerb?

Yes. Putting rubbish on the kerb that can block pedestrians and bicycles is considered illegal dumping. Anything that is too big for the Council Clean Up or your weekly bin collection should be taken to the Tip or collected by a dedicated rubbish removal company.

How do I prepare for Council Clean Up?

1. Book online at your local Council’s website and check terms and conditions, especially what they do not collect.
2. Before the collection day, follow your Councils’ instructions on how to separate your items or place the items. For example, you may be asked to put mattresses next to other rubbish items and not on top or under.
3. Check safety hazards. For example, tape fridge and oven doors shut to prevent sudden opening. Wrap and label sharp or dangerous items like mirror and glass.
4. Check that rubbish items fit in the amount that can be collected. Otherwise, they may not be collected and left behind.
5. Do not place items out until the night before to prevent others from adding their rubbish to your pile.
6. Place your items for pick-up in the area specified in your booking or by the Council. Choose a spot that doesn’t block the footpath.
7. Be at home for the collection day to ensure all rubbish is removed.

What are other ways to dispose of waste?

If something can still be used, donating it to charities or community groups will help reduce landfill and reuse behaviours. Australia is fighting a tough War on Waste, and needs your help to minimise waste! “Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle” is a perfect place to start!

Of course, there will be times where you need rubbish to be urgently removed or want someone else to take care of the junk properly. This is when Cheapest Load of Rubbish can help! We are a fully insured operation that provides same day rubbish removal. Get a free onsite, no obligation quote today and rest easy knowing your rubbish will be disposed of responsibly.

Disclaimer:

While this article provides comprehensive information about Sydney’s Council rubbish removal services, it is for informational purposes only.

We, Cheapest Load of Rubbish, are a private rubbish removal company that offers residential, commercial, and construction rubbish removal.

This information is intended to help residents understand their responsibilities and the limitations of Council services. For specific details and regulations regarding your Council’s pick-up schedules, bin guidelines, and clean-up programs, please refer directly to your local Council’s website or contact them for assistance.

If you require assistance removing bulky items that fall outside the scope of Council services, Cheapest Load of Rubbish is happy to help. We offer professional and responsible same-day rubbish removal services for various needs.

Please remember to dispose of all waste responsibly and follow your local Council regulations.

Thank you for reading!

Australia is a beautiful place for locals, tourists and animals. We are globally linked with iconic locations such as the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Blue Mountains, which are home to many unique animals including everyone’s favourite – the koala. But of late we are now seeing news stories related to near nationwide bush fires destroying thousands of homes, millions of animals and temperatures hitting record highs well above 50 °C.

So how did we get here? Why are extreme weather conditions and natural disasters hitting Australia?

Well, you may be surprised to learn that Australia is one of the most wasteful countries in the world. If you are passionate about protecting the many beautiful things that make us proud Australians, you need to understand the effects our rubbish is having on the environment.

If you are a visual person, the ABC series War On Waste is a must-watch and one that will no doubt make you think twice about your rubbish. But if you want to get down to the hard facts, here are some of the tough battles we are fighting.

The Plastic War

Australia uses over 10 million plastic bags a day, even though our entire population is only 25 million.

Do you know how much a tonne weighs? It is probably just an unimaginably heavy number for you, but that’s how much plastic waste Australian households throw out in 1 minute! So, by the time you get to the end of this article, a few tonnes of plastic would have been thrown away.

Where does all this plastic go? 85% of it ends up in landfill and the ocean while only 9% is recycled. Many plastic bags are currently floating in the ocean, harming vital sea creatures and destroying the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem.

Not only plastic bags but plastic straws, bottles and fruit trays may look tiny but they leave an equally big mess. If we continue to use plastics as we do now, the ocean will have more plastics than fish in the near future, and you will only see dolphins and turtles in books.

Fortunately, a few great minds have already started trying to find solutions to plastics found in our oceans. Inventions and innovations to clean the ocean are currently being trialled and tested to help clean plastics and protect wildlife.

The Food War

Plastic waste is one that gets some attention at least, but most people simply have no idea how big of a problem food waste is. From production to consumption, waste is produced at every step of the way.

Today, agriculture occupies nearly 40% of global land and uses 70% of freshwater supplies. That’s a lot of our finite resources! Not only that, food production leads to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions and many modern lifestyle-related chronic diseases due to people’s unsustainable preference for animal meat.

If we are clearing so much land and water to produce food, surely there is a higher demand than supply? Now get this, it is estimated that for every 5 bags of food Australians buy, 1 of them ends up wasted! Every year, an average Australian family throws out 1 tonne of food. But if just 1% of the population composted food scraps, it would save 45 million kgs of CO2.

What’s worse is that food waste just rots in landfill, where it emits even more greenhouse gases. If you think car pollution is bad, the methane let off by food waste is 25 times more!

If you are a fan of bananas, you may be interested to see with your own eyes how many bananas don’t make it to the shelf because they are slightly off shape in the first episode of The War on Waste. A shocking 20-40% of all fruits are rejected by the supermarkets for this very unnecessary reason.

The Throw-Away Culture War

Black Friday sales, EOFY sales, boxing day sales…are sales special or just the norm? Clever marketing has made Australia’s throw away culture an epidemic. Three-quarters of the clothes people purchase are thrown away and end up in landfill within 1 year! Keep in mind, it is not only the land that is wasted but also the water, cotton, energy and labour involved in the production process.

The same throw-away habit is even worse with coffee cups, bottles and cans, most of which are never recycled. The problem is simple to solve – bring your own cup or bottle or just have your drink in-store. While it takes only a split second to make the decision, it takes 400 years for plastic to break down in water.

When you are getting your next coffee, remember, Australia produces 1 billion coffee cups a year, which is enough to go around the Earth 2.5 times! Or if you are a soft drink person, we throw away enough bottles and cans to stretch across Australia in just 1 day! If you just recycle 1 aluminium can, you save it 100 years of decomposition in landfill and the energy saved can run a TV for more than 2 hours!

The Electronic War

Technology is one of the biggest buzz words in the 21st century, meaning new electronic devices like phones, computers, printers and so on update way too often. For example, there are more phones laying in people’s drawers than the number of people in Australia!

The average family produces 1.4 tonnes of electronic waste in 10 years, which could be recycled or reused for much longer. But sadly, there is no dedicated recycling program for most electronic devices, and inappropriate disposal or illegal dumping can even leak toxic heavy metals into the environment and affect the health of living beings.

Enough With The Doom & Gloom, What Can We Do To Help?

As you can see, Australia’s waste war is a tough one on so many fronts. That means every single one of us needs to join the fight and take responsibility – even if it is just a small thing that you do. Here are some ways to fight:

• Get more education through the official War On Waste website and help your family & friends understand.
• Cut down on plastic usage, including bags, bottles, straws, fruit trays.
• Bring your own grocery bags when you shop.
• Bring your own coffee cup, or use/burrow one on the go with Green Caffeen
• Eat less meat for your own and the planet’s health, start with meat-free Mondays.
• Buy quality over quantity. If you buy less in the first place, you will not waste as much!
• Take your food and garden waste to the organics only bin or make your own compost at home. Check your local council website for either free or subsidised composting equipment.
• Take time to study how to recycle responsibly: do’s and don’ts
• Donate clothes that you no longer wear.
• Deliver your phones and other electronic devices to a recycling company.
• Volunteer your time or money to help clean up with organisations like Clean Up Australia.
• Support organisations fighting the waste war at the forefront!

 

For the only planet that we call home, for children of the future and for our own health, take the time to learn how we can win the waste war together! The team at Cheapest Load of Rubbish can help ease the pressure by helping to remove your rubbish in an environmentally safe manner. Our experts take all sorts of rubbish from residential addresses, commercial businesses and even construction sites. Contact us today to see how we can help you.

Selling your house comes with a list of challenges. Being organised can save you from being caught up in the madness. During this time, you want to make every effort to present your home in its best light. Along with forming a strategy and marketing plan with your real estate agent, you want to start getting the house ready to sell. Clearing out rubbish and re-organizing the interior will make the entire process much easier.

1. Create a pre-sale cleaning checklist

The first step is to come up with a checklist. Organise your tasks from small to large and follow your plan to ensure an efficient and smooth process. The first step is to sort through and clean out every room in the house, one by one. Pick up some cardboard boxes and devote a set amount of time for cleaning out each room, getting rid of junk or putting things away for safe storage. Think about devoting a weekend to cleaning out a room or two, and enlist the hand of a professional residential rubbish removal service to help make the process a lot quicker and less stressful.

2. Hold a garage sale or donate unwanted items

Once you’ve sorted through the items you want to keep and those that you no longer have a use for, you will start to have a clearer vision and a more workable space to start the sorting process. If you have a lot of items in relatively good condition that you no longer want, think about holding a garage sale. It’s a great way to get rid of items quickly and to also generate interest in the house. Another option is to donate your unwanted items to a local charity store or collection bin. This is a great hassle-free way of cleaning out the house and in so doing you are giving back to the community you’ve called home for all those years.

3. Deep-cleaning your home

A good deep-clean of the home’s interior and exterior will make it inspection-ready and more appealing to the market. Yes, it can be a big task. But the result is worth it. Steam-cleaning carpets, mopping and waxing floors, vacuuming and paying special attention to the rooms potential buyers are most interested in will only increase interest in your property. A clean and well-maintained home has more chance at selling than one in disarray.

4. Repair & maintenance

This is the perfect time to catch up on all those home maintenance issues. Fixing leaking taps, replacing loose doorknobs, repairing holes in walls and general upkeep and maintenance of the home will help when it comes to sale time. Move from room to room assessing what needs to be fixed, replaced or repaired. Pay attention to broken tiles and worn grout in spaces such as the bathroom and kitchen; scrubbing out showers and bathtubs can transform a worn-out room.

5. Painting

It’s amazing what a new coat of paint can do to transform a house. It’s a great idea to repaint the interior of your home in preparation to sell. This will make the property look and smell brand new as well as add value to your home. First impressions matter, and a new paint job will give the house a brand-new look, especially if it hasn’t been painted in years or if the existing paint is outdated. When choosing a colour scheme, generally it’s best to stick to neutrals like whites, creams and greys. Not only do these lighter colours really help to open up a room and give the illusion of space, they also give the potential homebuyers a blank canvas.

6. Landscaping

Thinking about your home’s ‘curb appeal’ can and often does make all the difference. Curb appeal relates to the overall attractiveness of a house when viewed from the street.

Landscaping the front garden by chopping back large, overgrown plants or trees, planting coloured flowers, mowing the lawns and pressure washing the driveway will indicate to potential buyers that the house is well-maintained and worth investing in. Simply presenting your home in an inviting and welcoming way will impress any passers-by and catch the attention of those looking for property in your neighbourhood.

7. Find a good real estate agent

Selecting a professional and experienced real estate agent will be the most important investment when it’s time to sell your home. Your real estate agent will work with you to create the best advertising plan and price for your home. Real estate agents fees vary depending on the state you live in. Make sure you take time to research and compare to ensure you’re getting the right real estate agent for you and your property.

Call us today to remove your rubbish and help get your house ready for sale!