Waste & recycling
When your bins go out, and how Willoughby City Council handles recycling and bulky waste. Unusually for Sydney, the council runs a three-bin kerbside service where all three bins are collected weekly: a red-lid general-waste bin, a yellow-lid recycling bin, and a green-lid vegetation bin. The green bin is garden/vegetation only — Willoughby doesn't yet run a combined food-and-garden (FOGO) service (the NSW-wide FOGO mandate is 2030). Each house also gets scheduled bulky-waste clean-ups plus a free on-call collection. To find your collection day, use the council's household bin-services page.
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)
- Weekly
- Recycling (yellow lid)
- WeeklyPaper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metal containers. Willoughby collects recycling weekly — most NSW councils collect it fortnightly.
- Vegetation / garden organics (green lid)
- WeeklyGarden/vegetation only — no food waste accepted; not a combined FOGO service. NSW mandates FOGO for all households by 2030.
- Bulky / hard waste
- 3 scheduled clean-up collections per year + 1 free on-call collectionFor bulky household items (e.g. old furniture) that don't fit the weekly bins. Book the on-call collection via the council. Apartment residents should check with their building/strata manager.
- Problem waste & drop-off
- E-waste, batteries, chemicals via drop-off / Chemical CleanOutItem and quantity limits apply; see the council's A-Z of recycling and waste page below.
- Find your bin day
- Council's household bin-services page (address lookup)See the link below.
Willoughby's green bin is garden/vegetation only; a combined food-and-garden (FOGO) service is required across NSW by 2030. Bin frequencies, sizes 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.