5 surprising things that can go in your green bin

Published on 01 September 2021

Did you know you can put food scraps into your green bin?

This helps to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill, lowering our carbon emissions and returning valuable nutrients back to the environment through compost.

You might be surprised by some of the food items you can put in your green bin; like seafood, meat bones and dairy. Most people wouldn’t include these in their home compost or worm farms, which is why our Kitchen to Compost service is such a great value add, even if you are already composting at home.

Read more about what happens to your green waste after it’s collected.

On top of the usual compostable items like fruit and vegetable scraps and grains, here are five surprising things you can put in your green bin.

Read more about what can and can’t go into your green bin.

Meat and seafood scraps and bones

You probably don’t include these in your home compost, but you are welcome to put any type of meat, seafood, bones and scraps in your green bin for composting through our Kitchen to Compost service!

If you are worried about odours, particularly from seafood scraps, you can wrap them up in newspaper and store in your freezer until the night before your bin goes out.

Your green bin is serviced every week along with your yellow and red bins, so you don’t need to worry about scraps becoming smelly or attracting pests. Another good tip is to store your bin our of direct sunlight if you can.

Dairy

You can put any type of diary including cheese and egg shells into you green bin. Just remember the scraps must be loose and not contained in packaging (paper, plastic or glass).

Leftover food

While we should all do our bit to reduce food waste, sometimes it’s unavoidable. If you find yourself with some spoilt leftovers (processed or fresh) or expired pantry foods these can all go in your green bin. Again, remember to remove any packaging before throwing into your green bin.

Loose leaf tea and coffee grinds

If you enjoy a hot cuppa or caffeine fix, you’ll be delighted to find you can put your loose leaf tea and coffee grinds into your green bin.

However, tea bags and coffee pods (even ones that say they are compostable) are not accepted and you’ll need to put these into your red bin.

Compostable liners

To make it easier to take your food scraps from your kitchen out to your green bin, you can wrap them in a compostable liner.

Compostable bags must display AS 4736 Australian certification and display the seedling logo. These are the only type of certified bags we can accept. Never use plastic, or other forms of biodegradable bags as they contaminate the composting process and undo all your good work.

Read more about what can and can’t go into your green bin.