Waste & recycling
When your bins go out, and how Lake Macquarie handles recycling and bulky waste. Lake Mac runs a FOGO service: the lime-green food-and-garden-organics bin is collected weekly, while the red-lid general-waste bin and yellow-lid recycling bin are each collected fortnightly on alternating weeks. To find your collection day, use the council's 'My area' lookup.
New to these terms? Read them in plain English
- FOGO
- The green bin that takes food scraps as well as garden waste.
- Bulky / hard waste collection
- Pickup or drop-off for large items that don't fit in your bins.
- Community Recycling Centre (CRC)
- A free drop-off for 'problem' waste like paint, batteries and oils.
- Food & garden organics (green/lime lid)
- Weekly (FOGO)Food scraps plus garden organics — the green bin you use most often.
- General waste (red lid)
- FortnightlyAlternates with recycling.
- Recycling (yellow lid)
- FortnightlyAlternate week to general waste — paper, cardboard, glass, hard plastics, steel and tin cans.
- Bulky / hard waste
- 2 free bulky-waste services per yearChoose a kerbside collection or a drop-off voucher for the Awaba facility; booking required.
- Problem waste & drop-off
- Awaba Community Recycling CentreAt the Awaba Waste Management Facility — free household problem-waste drop-off (paint, batteries, oils, gas bottles, e-waste and more).
- Find your bin day
- Enter your address on the council's 'My area' pageSee the link below.
Lake Macquarie's kerbside recycling is run with Hunter Resource Recovery (a joint Cessnock/Lake Macquarie/Maitland/Singleton initiative). Bin frequencies and fees can change — confirm your collection day and current fees on the official sources below.
Sources — check it yourself
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.