Canberrans are being reminded to sort their festive season waste carefully, with a significant surge in rubbish and recycling expected over the Christmas period. City and Government Services Minister Tara Cheyne has highlighted that more material is generated at this time of year than any other.
Your Yellow Bin Checklist: What's In and What's Out
To manage the holiday deluge, residents should ensure they know exactly what can and cannot go into their household yellow-lidded recycling bins. Acceptable items include:
- Christmas cards, envelopes, and wrapping paper – even with small amounts of glitter or tape attached.
- Cardboard packaging and clean pizza boxes (food scraps should be scraped off first).
- All empty bottles, jars, cans, and plastic containers. A quick rinse is helpful but not mandatory.
Residents are encouraged to flatten cardboard boxes to save precious space in the bin. However, a number of common festive items must be kept out of the yellow bin to avoid contaminating the recycling stream. Do not place plastic bags, plastic toys, decorations, cellophane, foil wrapping, polystyrene, electronic waste, nappies, sanitary products, or broken crockery into your recycling bin. Leftover food should also go into the green waste or general rubbish bin.
For any uncertainty, the ACT Government’s online A to Z guide, known as the ‘Recyclopaedia’, provides detailed local recycling and disposal options at act.gov.au/recyclopaedia.
Options for Excess Waste and Container Refunds
For households that fill their recycling bin to overflowing, free drop-off centres are available across the city. "If you have a full recycling bin over the holidays, you can drop off your excess recycling at the free recycling drop off centres located in Belconnen, Gungahlin, Mitchell, Phillip and Tuggeranong," Ms Cheyne said.
These centres operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including Christmas Day. They accept steel and aluminium cans, paper, cardboard, and plastic food containers.
Additionally, the ACT Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) offers a 10-cent refund for each eligible bottle or can returned. With warmer weather typically increasing consumption of drinks, depot opening hours have been extended over the break. All ACT CDS depots will be open from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm daily, except on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Christmas Collection Changes and Disposal Centres
Standard bin collection schedules will be altered for the public holiday. Collections scheduled for Christmas Day, Thursday 25 December 2025, will be rescheduled to Saturday, 27 December. This change affects numerous suburbs including Aranda, Bruce, Dunlop, Evatt, Florey, Giralang, Hawker, Higgins, Holt, Kaleen, Latham, Lawson, Lyneham, MacGregor, Macnamara, McKellar, Page, Scullin, Strathnairn, and Weetangera.
All other collection days, including Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day, will run as normal.
For waste that cannot be handled through household bins or drop-off centres, the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre is the destination. Both the Mugga Lane and Mitchell resource management centres will be open every day except Christmas Day.
By following these guidelines, Canberra residents can help ensure the festive season's celebrations don't lead to unnecessary landfill, supporting the territory's recycling efforts during its busiest waste period.
