Waste & recycling
How Hobsons Bay's bins work. The council says every home should have four bins: a red-lid rubbish bin collected every week; a yellow-lid mixed recycling bin and a light-green-lid food and garden bin, collected on alternate fortnights; and a purple-lid glass bin collected once a month, on a recycling week. Put bins out by 6am on collection day. Your collection day depends on which of the council's four collection areas you live in.
New to these terms? Read them in plain English
- Bulky / hard waste collection
- Pickup or drop-off for large items that don't fit in your bins.
Bin collection at a glance
- Rubbish (red lid)
- Weekly, 120-litre binThe council finished swapping old dark-green rubbish lids for red ones in March 2025; if yours is still dark green, call 1300 179 944 for a free lid swap. You can upsize to 240 litres for $148.53 a year (2026–27), added to your rates.
- Mixed recycling (yellow lid)
- Fortnightly, 240-litre binCollected in the weeks the food and garden bin isn't. Glass bottles and jars go in the purple glass bin, not here.
- Food and garden (light green lid)
- Fortnightly, 120-litre binFood scraps and garden waste. You can upsize to 240 litres for $49.53 a year (2026–27). The council no longer empties old privately owned green-waste bins (dark-green lids); only council-supplied bins are collected.
- Glass (purple lid)
- Monthly, 120-litre binCollected once a month, in the same week as a recycling collection. Check your area's calendar for the week.
- Hard waste
- 1 free bookable collection per financial yearUp to 3 m³, no item longer than 1.5 m or heavier than 20 kg. A second collection costs $98.57. Book online or on 1300 179 944 by 5pm Thursday the week before. Items go inside your property boundary (front yard or driveway), not on the nature strip, by 6am. No renovation material, fencing, chemicals, batteries, gas bottles or asbestos.Book hard waste →
- Drop-off: tips and recycling centres
- No council-run tip in Hobsons BayThe council points residents to facilities run by other councils (Wyndham's refuse disposal facility in Werribee, the Moonee Valley Transfer Station in Aberfeldie and Brimbank's Resource Recovery Centre in Keilor Park) and to private sites in Brooklyn and Altona North. It asks you to check each facility's own page for hours, accepted items and fees before you go.Drop-off options →
- Find your bin day
- Collection map, area calendars or the LoopedIn Councils appEnter your address in the council's interactive map to see the next four weeks, or download your area's 2026 calendar. The council's bin app is 'LoopedIn Councils' (select Hobsons Bay City Council); the old Recycling 2.0 app was due to be switched off in June 2026. No collections on Good Friday, Christmas Day or New Year's Day; that week's collections move one day later.Check your bin day →
We describe the bins the way Hobsons Bay does. Bin sizes and upsize prices come from the adopted 2026–27 budget; frequencies come from the council's missed-bin page and its 2026 collection calendars.
Sources — check it yourself
- Hobsons Bay City Council — Your four bins · Sep 2026
- Hobsons Bay City Council — When will my bins be collected? · Sep 2026
- Hobsons Bay City Council — Missed bin collection (collection frequencies) · Sep 2026
- Hobsons Bay City Council — Waste and recycling calendar 2026, Area 1 (PDF) · 2026
- Hobsons Bay City Council — Hard waste · Sep 2026
- Hobsons Bay City Council — Recycling and landfill centres · Sep 2026
- Hobsons Bay City Council — Annual Budget 2026–27, section 4.1.1(i) service charges (PDF) · 2026–27
- Victorian Government — Standardising household recycling across Victoria (lid colours) · Sep 2026
Figures are current as at the dates shown and may change — always confirm with the linked source. See the notice at the bottom of the page for full details and how to report a correction.