Managing our waste together

Ratepayers have a separate waste charge to fund essential services to achieve our community's waste goals.
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Separate waste charges

All rateable properties will have a charge of $198.20 for waste services. This cost has been separated from general rates. It covers the costs of kerbside bin collection, hard waste collection, and Resource Recovery Centre operation.

By separating the cost of waste services from general rates we can manage the costs of delivering these essential and valued services in the most fair, equitable and transparent way. Many of our neighbouring councils have taken this 'fee for service' approach for several years.

The separate waste charge means the amount of general rates you pay will be reduced.

Kerbside FOGO bin charge

Properties that have the kerbside collection will also pay an additional charge of $66 for the convenience of the service. Many Port Phillip residents live in apartments or small properties who can’t accommodate additional bins or don’t generate a lot of garden organic waste. Our hybrid approach to FOGO means only properties with a garden and space for an additional bin will get a kerbside FOGO bin.

Properties that don’t have the space or generate much garden material won’t be allocated a separate FOGO bin. Those residents can use our communal service to drop off FOGO materials at collection points across the City.

Transforming waste and recycling in Victoria

The Victorian Government is transforming the state’s recycling sector. Its 10-year action plan, Recycling Victoria, requires that all households be offered a kerbside glass recycling service by 2027 and a food and garden organics recovery service by 2030.

What we're doing to change and improve waste management

We're introducing new waste and recycling services to residents and businesses:

As an organisation we're also:

  • recycling waste from some public recycling bins and soon recycling waste from public litter bins.
  • converting green waste from South Melbourne Market into organic compost and stopping use of single-use plastic bags. Find out more at South Melbourne Market: Sustainability at the market.

Managing change and growth in waste management

Our new Waste Management Strategy will deliver the extra waste services our community wants. These cover four different streams of waste management including more recycling services. The four streams cover general waste, general recycling (for paper, metal and plastics), glass, and food organics and garden organics (FOGO).

Along with new services, we’re also seeing the level of waste across our community is continuing to increase. More people are working at home and our population is growing. Shifting recycling markets and increased processing costs, including the cost of contamination, are also placing pressure on costs. For example the EPA has increased landfill levies. Costs to manage all our waste services are increasing. 

Our increased focus on recycling and introduction of FOGO and communal glass recycling aims to reduce the impact on the environment by reducing the amount of material sent to landfill. Over time we can reduce the costs of processing waste in our City.

Read the strategy to learn more about our hybrid waste model: Don’t Waste It! Waste Management Strategy 2022-2025 (PDF 2 MB)

What can you do to help?

Consume less and think before you buy

We can all reduce our impact by purchasing, consuming and throwing out less.

You can:

  • avoid single use plastics
  • buy in bulk to avoid packaging
  • ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”.

Reusing items is the next best thing. You could:

  • purchase items at op shops to avoid new and packaged products
  • borrow things from friends, neighbours or family members
  • use the library instead of buying books
  • donate things to others when you no longer want them.

Understand how to recycle

We are getting better at recycling, but too much recyclable material still ends up in landfill because it's placed in the wrong bin or can't be sorted properly.

Find out what can and can’t be recycled in your recycling bins at home.