Council has a recycling processing contract with the supplier, Visy Recycling. The items collected are taken to one of their two Materials Recycling Facilities here in Melbourne. These materials are then sorted, using manual and automated systems, into material groups including cardboard and paper, glass, plastics, aluminium and steel. The sorted material is baled ready for further processing and re-manufacture, primarily within Visy’s own operations.

Visy currently has a solution for over 80% of the kerbside recycling bin contents. The contents are routinely processed and primarily re-made into new packaging products, by Visy, right here in Australia and New Zealand. Learn more about their steps to a circular economy 

• Paper and cardboard: Visy recovers 1.56 million tonnes of paper and cardboard annually. After sorting at the recycling facility it is bailed and sent to one of eight paper mills in Australia where the VISY paper mills manufacture them into recycled craft paper or in corrugated cardboard
• Glass: Visy is the largest glass manufacturer in Australia and New Zealand and recovers 409,000 tonnes of glass annually. The glass collected is screened and separated by colour for use in a furnace, before it's blown for use by manufacturers within Australia and New Zealand for new bottles and jars. Some of the product including glass fines is refined and sold as glass sands for use in road base.
• Steel: Visy recovers 31,000 tonne of steel. Steel is sorted, crushed and shredded before melting and rolling. This is then cut and formed into new food cans.
• Aluminium: Visy recovers 20,000 tonnes of aluminium. Aluminium is shredded, melted and rolled before forming into drinks cans.
• Rigid plastics: Visy recovers 100,000 tonnes of plastic each year. Plastics collected are generally separated into specific types using manual and optical sorting then shredded, washed, sterilised before being turned into pellets. Plastic pellets are moulded and blown into new bottles for local and overseas markets.

Items put in your garbage bin are taken to the South East Melbourne Transfer Station (SEMTS) and then transferred to a landfill site in Werribee, run by Cleanaway.

Garbage that goes to landfill can never be used again. The items buried  break down slowly and produce methane gas, a harmful greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change.

We encourage our community to reduce, reuse, recycle prior to using the garbage bin. 

If we can reduce our waste we can also reduce our emissions. Check out our Waste Management Strategy ( PDF 4.15MB) for how we plan to keep reducing our waste. 

Our optional FOGO service is taken to a large scale composting facility located in Dandenong South and run by Biogro

The items will be checked for incorrect items, processed through machines and composted at high heats, where it will be turned to quality mulch and compost.The product will be sold to farms and gardens, to help make plants and food grow across Vic.

Compost is important as it helps create healthy soils, retain water in the soul, assist with temperature control, reduces reliance on chemicals, helps suppress weeds and increases the diversity of microbes and insects in the soil.

Watch this three minute video for an overview of the process at Biogro.