BE sure to do the right thing over the festive season and fill your FOGO bin with food waste, recycle what you can and only put landfill-destined items in the red-lidded bin. If you are unsure where something belongs, check Wollongong City Council’s A-Z Recycling Guide or download the Wollongong Waste app.

Here’s some essential waste collection information for the festive break.

Kerbside collections

Kerbside red-lid waste to landfill, yellow-lid recycling and green-lid food organics garden organics (FOGO) bin collections will continue as normal over the festive season, with the exception of Christmas Day.

With Christmas Day falling on a Monday, residents are asked to put their bins out, as normal, and they’ll be collected in the following days. If your bin isn’t collected on its usual day or at the usual time, keep it kerbside until they’re emptied.

The Wollongong Waste and Resource Recovery Park (including the Community Recycling Centre) will also be closed on Christmas Day only. Otherwise, its hours of operation over the festive season will be 7.30am to 4.30pm on weekdays, and 8am to 4pm on weekends and public holidays.

Cardboard & recycling drop-offs

At this time of year, it’s not unusual to find the yellow-lidded recycling bin filled to the brim with lots of extra cardboard thanks to the generosity of loved ones and gifts under the Christmas tree.

Two cardboard recycling drop-off days will be provided in the northern suburbs by Council after Christmas to help the community get rid of their extra recyclable waste.

Visit one of the drop-offs at Helensburgh (December 28) or Corrimal (December 29) to responsibly get rid of extra recyclables. The Council drop-offs only accept household quantities of materials.

• Rex Jackson Park, Helensburgh (entry from Walker or Robinson Streets), Thursday, December 28 2023 from 7.30am to midday.
• Ziems Park, Corrimal (entry from Short Street), Friday December 29 2023 from 7.30am to midday.

What can you bring? 

• Flattened cardboard.
• Steel and tin cans.
• Aluminium cans, trays and clean foil.
• Rigid plastic containers, including lids.
• Glass bottles and jars.
• Milk and juice cartons.

What will not be accepted? 

• Wrapping paper (Large pieces of plain wrapping paper can be scrunched into a ball and recycled in your yellow-lid bin, along with paper envelopes and cardboard packaging.  Metallic or glitter wrapping paper cannot be recycled and should go in your red-lid bin).
• Soft plastics including plastic bags.
• Polystyrene foam.
• Food-soiled cardboard.
• Unflattened cardboard boxes.
• General waste.
• Food organics and garden organics.
• Clothing and linen.

For more information on how to drop-off at these events visit Wollongong Waste

Leftovers and FOGO

The festive season is paradise for FOGO, your green-lidded Food Organics Garden Organics bin. All food waste and garden waste can go into your FOGO bin (just make sure your bin lid can close). This includes:

• Ham bones.
• Seafood and shells.
• Plate scrapings.
• Real Christmas trees (NOTE: Fake Christmas trees belong in your red-lidded general waste bin).

Tip: If you’re worried about the smell from food scraps and prawn heads, put the food scraps and shells into a FOGO caddy liner and place in the freezer. You can then put this entire frozen FOGO bag into your green-lidded wheely bin on collection day. Additional caddy liners can be collected from Wollongong City Libraries.

For information on our other services, see Council services over Christmas & NYE

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