Plastic packaging and bags play an essential role in agricultural industries by protecting seed, pesticide and other supplies for transport, use and storage.

bagMUSTER is being developed as a hybrid program, complementing the exiting waste stewardship programs of drumMUSTER and ChemClear to deliver an industry-led and fit‑for‑purpose solution for agricultural bags.

bagMUSTER will commence a pilot operation by mid-2023 and have in place a national program by 1 January 2024.

Companies can register an EOI to participate in the program by visiting bagMUSTER.

Common household problem waste items such as fluorescent lights, smoke detectors, paints, gas bottles, fire extinguishers, batteries and oils can be harmful to human health and the environment if not disposed of correctly.

Some of these items are accepted* at recycling centres throughout the year at:

• Narellan Community Recycling Centre, Camden Council's Depot, 5 Millwood Avenue, Narellan.
• Veolia Spring Farm Resource Recovery Park 20 Barrow Rd, Spring Farm. Phone 1300 651 116 or download the brochure.
• Campbelltown City Council's Community Recycling Centre Hepher Road, Campbelltown.  
• Liverpool City Council’s Community Recycling Centre 99 Rose St, Liverpool. Phone 1300 362 170
• Penrith City Council’s Community Recycling Centre 96 Dunheved Circuit, St Marys. Phone 4732 7615

*Visit their websites or call to check for pricing, trading hours, accepted items and quantities.

Many of these problem waste items can be picked up for FREE from your front door by RecycleSmart via their FREE subscription. Check what items are accepted and book a pickup today!

Alternatively, you can take these items and other problem waste to one of the FREE NSW EPA Chemical CleanOut events held across NSW on specified dates or refer to the flyer. Council normally hosts a CleanOut event annually in early February.

For more information, visit NSW EPA’s Household Chemical CleanOut or phone the NSW EPA Environment Line on 131 555.

Residents can take their excess cardboard to the Veolia Spring Farm Resource Recovery Park, 20 Barrow Road, Spring Farm NSW 2570. For further information in relation to trading hours and accepted items call 1300 651 116 or download the brochure.

Visit the Kerbside Collection webpage for more information.

Visit the Construction & Demolition Waste webpage for more information

What can sometimes be advertised as ‘Free Clean Fill’ can often leave the unsuspecting homeowner with fill contaminated with building and demolition waste, rubbish, chemicals, heavy metals or even asbestos.

By accepting contaminated waste onto your property, you may be unintentionally breaking the law and left holding the bill for clean-up costs, as well as dealing with any environmental pollution. Visit the NSW EPA’s webpage Free fill - is it worth it? to protect your land and make sure it’s legal.

Illegally dumped clothing, toys and household items not only looks untidy, it can also attract more dumping. These items are not accepted in the yellow recycling bin and should not go in the red garbage bin if it can be avoided.

Charity organisations and op shops are a great option for clothing, accessories, books and furniture that are in good condition - if you’re not sure whether to donate, think “Would I give it to a mate?”. If so, you can contact your nearby op shop to ensure your donation makes a difference.

Through BIG W’s ‘Toys for Joy’ initiative, residents can donate pre-loved toys to be recycled by Terracycle. Now available in all BIG W stores.

Clothing and toys can also be picked up for FREE from your front door by RecycleSmart. Check what clothing and toy items are accepted and book a pickup today!

Otherwise, residents can make use of Council’s Kerbside Collection Service to dispose of waste materials that are too bulky for normal garbage collection.

Over 90% of the materials used in mobile phones are recyclable and can be reused, avoiding future greenhouse gas emissions, saving energy, protecting our environment and conserving scarce natural resources.

Mobile phones or accessories should also never be thrown in the rubbish, where they can end up in landfill. Residents can drop off their old, unwanted and broken mobile phones, plus their batteries, chargers and accessories for recycling through MobileMuster in Council’s Recycling Stations at:

• Camden Council Administration Building - 70 Central Avenue, Oran Park
• Camden Library - 40 John Street, Camden
• Narellan Library - Cnr Queen and Elyard Streets, Narellan

Unwanted agricultural and veterinary chemicals used in growing and farming activities can pose a health risk to people, and harmful to the environment.

ChemClear is a national product stewardship program complementing drumMUSTER, by providing agvet chemical users with easy recycling and disposal options. It has meant that waste holders can dispose of their eligible leftover chemicals at no additional cost.

Of the chemicals collected under the ChemClear program, 98% are used as an alternate fuel source through a range of disposal methods and technologies. 

For more information, visit Do I need ChemClear?  

Old and leftover paints including water-based, oil-based or solvent paints and paint-related products are commonly found in our household garages and sheds. If these paint products are not disposed of responsibly, they can be harmful to our families and environment, particular our waterways.

Paintback is an initiative that accepts unwanted paint and packaging, diverting it away from landfill and the environment. Paintback provides residents the opportunity to declutter their homes of old paint containers, to avoid disposal costs and to also responsibly dispose of paint products through an initiative that recycles and innovatively reuses unwanted paint and paint products.

Paintback events are run together with NSW EPA Household Chemical CleanOut events or have Community Recycling Centres as Paintback collection points.

Sealed paints (maximum 2L) can also be picked up for FREE from your front door by RecycleSmart. Check what other items are accepted and book a pickup today!

Drink bottles and cans are accepted in the yellow recycling bin. However, they become a problem when littered in our streets, parks and waterways. 

Residents can make use of the NSW Government’s litter reduction initiative Return and Earn offering a 10c refund for every eligible drink containers deposited at return points across NSW.

Batteries are commonly used by households in devices including toys and remote controls. When damaged or overheated they can cause fires so should never be placed in the yellow recycling or red garbage bins. They are also a problem because they contain toxic metals such as cadmium, mercury and lead that can leak into the environment. Other battery types contain valuable materials like magnesium and zinc which can be recycled for future use.

Residents can drop off used household batteries to the recycling stations located at:

• Camden Council Administration Building - 70 Central Avenue, Oran Park
• Camden Library - 40 John Street, Camden
• Narellan Library - Cnr Queen and Elyard Streets, Narellan
• Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Living - 1 Mount Annan Drive, Mount Annan
• Campbelltown City Council Civic Centre - Cnr Queen and Broughton Streets, Campbelltown
• Wollondilly Shire Council Civic Centre - 62-64 Menangle Street, Picton

Various other battery recycling drop off points can be found at the following locations:

• ALDI stores - all standard household (AAA, AA, C, D and 9V) batteries
• Bunnings stores -  all standard household (AAA, AA, C, D and 9V) batteries and power tool batteries
• Officeworks stores - all household (AAA, AA, C, D and 9V) batteries, laptop batteries and mobile phone batteries
• Supercheap Auto stores - car batteries
• Woolworths stores - all household (AAA, AA, C, D and 9V) and button batteries, laptop batteries and mobile phone batteries (and old mobile phones, chargers and accessories), Mobile wireless modems, and wearable technology such as smartwatches and fitness trackers

When ink and printer cartridges are unnecessarily sent to landfill, not only do they take up valuable space, they can slowly leach toxic compounds into our environment and waterways.

Used cartridges can be recycled into new products, including plastics, metal, inks and toners through Cartridge 4 Planet Ark program.

Residents can conveniently drop off their cartridges into Council’s recycling stations located at:

• Camden Council Administration Building - 70 Central Avenue, Oran Park
• Camden Library - 40 John Street, Camden
• Narellan Library - Cnr Queen and Elyard Streets, Narellan

Ink and printer cartridges can also be picked up for FREE from your front door by RecycleSmart. Check what other items are accepted and book a pickup today!

Littered plastics can be harmful to birdlife and animals when littered in our streets and parks. Unfortunately, single use and soft plastics can’t be accepted in the yellow recycling bins as they jam up the machinery at the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) where the recycling is taken. 

Please note - Due to unforeseen challenges, the REDcycle Group has temporarily stopped accepting and processing soft plastics from 9 November 2022. Soft plastics collections have been suspended via REDcycle drop off points at Woolworths and Coles supermarkets across Australia.

RecycleSmart have resumed soft plastics collections from residents as of 27 February 2023. For more information, visit RecycleSmart.

Residents are still encouraged to divert their single use and soft plastics from landfill – by reusing and/or avoiding it. Here’s how:

• BYO bag to the supermarket or shops. Your bags don’t even have to be cloth, canvas or environmentally friendly ones either. Even just reusing your plastic shopping bags can still help to reduce soft plastic waste.
• Avoid individually wrapped packets and buy in bulk instead! Rather than buying convenient mini packs of biscuits or chips for lunchboxes, buy a large single packet and portion it into reusable containers. It’s less waste and costs less too!
• Avoid pre-packaged fruit and vegetable such as the 1kg plastic bag of apples or cling-wrapped mushrooms in plastic trays – it’s unnecessary and wasteful. Instead, choose what you need from the loose section using reusable bags then place straight into your fruit basket or fridge at home.
• Avoid cling wrap by using reusable wraps and containers. You can avoid needless and wasteful cling wrap packaging simply by using good airtight storage containers in a variety of sizes. Also consider using reusable wax-lined cloths or beeswax wraps.
• Grow your own. Avoid buying fresh herbs and salads at the supermarket that come wrapped in soft plastic. Consider growing your own at home in season, to enjoy when you need it without the waste! Otherwise, you can visit your local farmers’ market for fresh produce without the plastic packaging! Don’t forget to BYO bags!

For the time being, any single use and soft plastics stored in cupboards and drawers, residents are advised to place these in their red garbage bin, not in the yellow recycling bin.

For more information about the suspension to soft plastic recycling, refer to REDcycle.

Storage of expired and unwanted medicines in the home can be dangerous and unsafe disposal of unwanted medicines can lead to environmental damage.

Residents are encouraged to remove all unwanted medicines from the home and place them in a bag or container and drop off to their local chemist. The pharmacist will put the medicines in a secure bin for collection and safe disposal through the Return Unwanted Medicines (RUM) Project.

Old and unwanted medicines can also be picked up for FREE from your front door by RecycleSmart. Check what other items are accepted and book a pickup today! 

Discarded, unrinsed and inadequately rinsed empty farming chemical containers can be a health risk to the people who handle them, and they can contaminate land and waterways.

drumMUSTER is a stewardship program of Agsafe providing users of agricultural and veterinary chemicals with an easy recycling pathway for eligible empty agvet chemical containers across rural Australia.

After containers have been delivered and inspected through the drumMUSTER process, the plastic containers are either shredded, granulated or heat-extruded back to a resin suitable for the production of a new range of products including wheelie bins, fence posts and irrigation pipes. Metal containers are recycled through the normal metal recycling process.

Find your nearest drumMUSTER collection site or call 1800 008 707.

Most asbestos products in your home are safe if they’re in good condition and unlikely to be damaged or disturbed. However, if asbestos products are damaged, weathered, worked on, incorrectly handled, or transported, their fibres can be released into the air posing a serious health risk if inhaled.

Asbestos removal is a health risk if you don’t know how to do it safely. If you need to remove asbestos from your property, use a licensed asbestos removalist.

You can find a licensed asbestos removalist on the SafeWork NSW website

If you are legally able to remove and dispose of asbestos material from your home, you can only use a facility licenced to accept asbestos from the public. Before taking asbestos to the facility for disposal, you need to:

• Contact the facility beforehand to confirm:
• whether they accept household asbestos
• any requirements for delivering asbestos to the facility eg unloading by hand or by tipping
• whether you need to book to dispose of asbestos (many facilities require a booking at least 24 hours in advance)

For a full list of licensed facilities accepting asbestos, visit ‘NSW EPA's 'Facilities that accept household asbestos' or check the following table: 

Please note - licencing or conditions of these facilities may change so responsibility for checking these details is with the person disposing of the asbestos waste before they visit the facility.

It is illegal to:

• put asbestos waste in the kerbside bins. It is dangerous for Council staff and can contaminate otherwise recyclable waste streams,
• put asbestos in an uncovered skip bin or skip bin not approved to hold asbestos,
• reuse, recycle or illegally dump asbestos products or asbestos contaminated waste not to comply with the requirements listed above,
• fail to comply with the requirements listed above.

For more information about the different forms of asbestos or finding asbestos in your home or soil:

• Download Asbestos Fact Sheet for Homeowners and Tenants
• Visit NSW Government webpage ‘Asbestos in NSW’ and
• Visit NSW EPA’s webpage ‘Dealing with household asbestos’

Coffee pods can’t be recycled through the yellow lidded recycling bin because they are too small for the recycling facility to sort. However, Terracycle offers a number of coffee pod recycling programs and Nespresso also runs their own – with the coffee sent to an industrial composting facility and the empty pod recycled and sent back to the aluminium industry to produce new aluminium products, bikes, ladder etc.

Aluminium coffee pods can also be picked up for FREE from your front door by RecycleSmart. Check what other items are accepted and book a pickup today!