Waste & recycling
When your bins go out, and how Shellharbour handles recycling and bulky/hard waste. Enter your address below for your real collection days. Shellharbour runs a FOGO service: the green bin (food + garden organics) goes out weekly, while recycling and general waste alternate fortnightly. Note: unlike some councils, Shellharbour doesn't include a free annual hard-waste pickup — it runs an on-call, user-pays service instead.
When's my bin day?
Enter your street address to find your real collection days, based on the council's official collection-zone map and calendar.
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.
- General waste (red lid)
- FortnightlyCollected fortnightly on your zone's day; it alternates with the yellow recycling bin, so one of the two goes out each week alongside the weekly green bin.
- Recycling (yellow lid)
- FortnightlyPaper, cardboard, hard plastics, glass bottles and jars, steel and tin cans — collected fortnightly, alternating with the red bin.
- Food & garden organics (green lid)
- WeeklyFOGO — food and garden organics collected together each week on your zone's day. Find yours above.
- Bulky / hard waste
- On-call, user-pays — book firstNot a free annual pickup and not funded through your rates. You book a collection via REMONDIS Harbour Cities and pay a per-booking fee (indicatively around $100; the council subsidises the rest). Confirm current fees and accepted items on the official waste site.
- Problem waste & drop-off
- Free — Community Recycling Centre, Dunmore DepotFree drop-off for household problem waste: e-waste, household and car batteries, paint, motor/cooking oils, gas bottles, fluoro globes, smoke detectors and more.
- Find your bin day
- Enter your address at Shellharbour WasteUse the lookup above, or the official Shellharbour Waste tool. See the links below.
Some NSW councils fund a free annual hard-waste collection through rates; Shellharbour instead offers a pay-per-use on-call service, so you only pay when you use it. Bin day is resolved from the council's official 2024 collection-zone map; always confirm fees, accepted items and the exact fortnightly week 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.