More than just bins

Greater Geelong’s waste charge works out to less than $5 every time your bin is emptied. But it’s much more than bins - by paying your waste charge you’re making possible many other services from public place bins to our resource recovery centres.

Bin Collection & Maintenance - 24%

This covers the cost to collect and transport material from up to 270,000 bins every week, plus maintaining and repairing bins.

Garbage Landfill Fees - 22%

The second largest cost is sending over 60,000 tonnes of red bin garbage to landfill every year. Garbage disposal to landfill costs over twice as much as recycling and garden waste combined due to rising landfill costs. 60% of the cost of landfill goes directly to state and federal governments in landfill tax and GST (read more under Why has my waste charge increased? below.)

Infrastructure & Projects - 15%

As one of the largest and fastest growing local governments in Australia, Geelong has to invest big in waste infrastructure to cover our future needs. This includes $12.5 million to upgrade our Anakie Composting Facility so we can accept food waste in green bins from 2027-28, and $1.2 million to get the Geelong Resource Recovery back open.

Building our own facilities means we support local jobs and industry instead of sending our waste elsewhere.

Processing Recycling & Garden Waste - 12%

Processing 22,000 tonnes of recycling and 38,000 tonnes of garden waste is another major cost, including running our Anakie Composting Facility. Spending money to do this right means we can recover valuable resources from our waste and reduce what we send to landfill.

Resource Recovery Centres - 9%

Running costs for Geelong and Drysdale Resource Recovery Centres, including a new temporary recycling drop off point in North Geelong that will open in late September.

Public Bins & Dumped Rubbish - 7%

Maintaining our public litter bins, street cleaning and clearing dumped rubbish.

Hard Waste Collection - 4%

The cost of our book-in hard waste collection for residents.

 Community Education & Admin - 4%

This includes wages and staff costs, and our Waste Education program to help residents understand their waste services.

Vehicles & Equipment - 4%

The cost to maintain all the different vehicles and plant we use, from compacting tractors at Drysdale Landfill to our public bin collection trucks.

Why has my waste charge increased from last year?

The waste charge is affected by many things, from the cost of fuel for collection trucks to the amount of contamination (non-recyclables) residents put in their recycling bins.

This year, a major factor is the 30 per cent increase in the Victorian Government’s landfill levy, a tax charged on every tonne of waste we send to landfill. This levy plus GST makes up 61 per cent of the cost of landfill and goes directly to the state government. This levy is meant to discourage landfill and encourage investment in recycling. 

As Greater Geelong households produce much more red bin or landfill waste than we do recycling or garden waste, higher landfill costs have a bigger impact on your waste charge.

How does my waste charge compare to other councils?

It’s hard to directly compare our waste charges to other councils, as different areas provide different services.

For example, Surf Coast Shire has a slightly higher waste charge with no hard waste collection, but allows residents to drop extra garden waste at their depot for free.

Merri-bek has a lower charge with a weekly food and garden waste collection, but offers residents much smaller standard red and green bins than Geelong.

And more rural councils like Horsham and Warrnambool have a slightly lower waste charge, but collect all bins fortnightly.

Can I get an additional or larger bin?

Did you know you can pay for additional bins if you have a large household? This enables us to keep our standard bin size smaller (and waste charge lower) for most residents, while bigger households can pay for the service they need. Find out more at our bin services page.