Recycling our waste on the Central Coast is easy and has become a daily activity which has real environmental benefits. When you recycle, you help save important natural resources like minerals, trees, water and oil. You also save energy, conserve landfill space, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and reduce pollution. Recycling closes the resources loop, ensuring valuable and reusable resources do not go to waste. Instead, they are put back to good use, making much less impact on our environment in the remanufacturing process the second time around. Your yellow lid bin is for recycling only. This bin is collected fortnightly on the same day as your red-lidded garbage bin, but on the alternate weeks to your garden vegetation bin. Visit our Bin Collection Day page to find out what day your bins are emptied. The following can be placed in your yellow lid recycling bin: Paper and cardboard cardboard packaging cereal boxes egg cartons fresh milk and juice cartons greeting cards junk mail laundry powder boxes office and computer paper pizza boxes (clean) phone books wrapping paper (not foil or plastic) Rigid plastic bottles and containers Any plastic bottle or container used in the kitchen, bathroom or laundry, including: biscuit trays body wash bottles detergent bottles cleaning spray bottles cream containers drink bottles ice cream tubs laundry liquid bottles lids (preferred separated from bottle, container or jar) margarine and butter tubs sauce bottles shampoo and conditioner bottles strawberry and tomato punnets take-away food containers yoghurt tubs Soft plastic bags and wrappers can be recycled in your Yellow Lid Bin if you are signed up to the Curby Program and using the special yellow collections bags and tags. Click here for further information and to sign up to the program. Metal cans, aerosol cans and foil trays air freshener spray cans aeroguard cans baby formula tins bottle tops (preferred separated from bottle) bug bomb spray cans coffee tins cooking oil spray cans deodorant spray cans drink cans fly spray cans foil pie trays foil BBQ trays (disposable food cans) food cans insect spray cans hair spray cans milo tins lids (preferred separated from bottle or jar) olive oil cans paint tins (empty and under 15 litres) pet food cans Green, brown and clear glass bottles and jars beer bottles jam jars juice bottles medicine jars pickle jars sauce bottles sauce jars spread jars wine bottles Items not accepted in the yellow lid recycling bin: Items not accepted in the yellow lid recycling binItems not accepted in the yellow lid recycling bin: Plastic bags and wrappers Clothing, linen and shoes Shredded paper Long life / UHT Cartons Disposable paper cups (including coffee cups) Plastic buckets, toys and nick-nacks Plastic plant pots Meat Trays Polystyrene and Styrofoam Paper towels and tissues General waste including nappies and food waste Scrap metal Newspapers wrapped in plastic Garden waste Ceramics, light globes and Pyrex Electrical appliances Hazardous wastes, paints and oils Medical waste or syringes Gas cylinders, butane cannisters and fire hydrants NOTE: Soft plastic bags and wrappers can be recycled in your Yellow Lid Bin if you are signed up to the Curby Program and using the special yellow collections bags and tags. Click here for further information and to sign up to the program. If you put the wrong items into your recycling bin, it may not be collected. Soft Plastic Bag and Wrappers Recycle them in your yellow lid bin with Curby: Join the Curby program and recycle your soft plastic bags and wrappers in your yellow lid recycling bin. Please remember, you must use the special Curby tags for the recycling sorting facility to recognise your soft plastics, otherwise the soft plastics may end up contaminating some of our other recycling. For more information and to join the program visit: Soft Plastics Recycling Recycling Tips Don’t Bag It: Simply put your recyclable items loosely into the bin. Staff at the recycling centre will not open plastic bags, so anything placed in a plastic bag will end up in landfill. Recycling right: Make sure jars, bottles and cans are empty and contain no liquid or food. Tip out your liquids and scrape out any food remains. If you prefer to wash your recycling use old dishwater instead of fresh water. Need further information? Watch our latest videos teaching you all about which items you can and cannot recycle on the Central Coast. What happens to your recycling? Each fortnight Cleanaway empties your recycling bin and delivers the material to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). The MRF is a large factory where household recyclables are sorted into individual commodity streams, such as paper, metals, plastic and glass using machinery. MRF employees (called Sorters) remove large pieces of contamination (such as plastic bags, clothing, dirty nappies and food waste) by hand. After recyclables have been sorted and baled they are transported to reprocessing centres both within Australia and overseas, where they are manufactured into new goods.