FAQs

Your 240L bin with a yellow lid is for recycling only and is collected fortnightly. Here’s what you can put in your Yellow Bin:

• Clean paper and cardboard
• Juice and milk cartons
• Glass bottles and jars (lids off)
• Cans and tins
• Aerosol cans (empty)
• Aluminium foil and trays (clean and collected into at least a fist-sized ball).
• All rigid plastic containers marked with Plastics Identification Codes 1,2 and 5. (eg. milk bottles, shampoo and detergent bottles, ice cream and yoghurt containers, plastic plant pots)
• Plastic lids can remain on empty plastic containers including milk and juice bottles. They do not need to be collected in another container.

To keep our recycling staff and facilities safe, there are some items and materials that we cannot accept for recycling. The following list details items that you cannot put into your Yellow Bin:

• No soft plastic bags, bin liners, wrappers or packets
• No bagged items
• No clothes or shoes
• No pillows, cushions, quilts or blankets
• No polystyrene foam trays, cups or packaging
• No nappies
• No food or drink in containers or bottles
• No liquids
• No light globes, mirrors or window glass
• No crockery
• No ropes or hoses
• No wooden items
• No toys
• No sporting, hunting or fishing equipment
• No electrical appliances or batteries, (including devices with on board batteries such as vapes) - these are dangerous in bins and need to be taken to a recycler
• No medical waste, including syringes
• No garage or construction items like tools, toilet seats, engine parts
• No bulky items like child car seats, chairs, camping equipment
• No offensive weapons like swords, knives, guns, batons, bows, arrows, spear guns
• No combustible items like marine flares, ammunition, fire lighters
• No pressurised items like gas bottles, fire extinguishers

There are many more items that cannot be placed in your Yellow Bin. If you are unsure about what to do with a particular item, please visit whichbin.sa.gov.au

You may have noticed a lot of your household plastic items feature a small recycling symbol accompanied by a number, from 1-7. This is called the Plastics Identification Code, and number in the triangle identifies what kind of plastic the item is made from, based on its resin composition.

Here's what each of the numbers mean:

1: PET or Polyethylene Terephthalate

The easiest plastic to recycle. It’s a clear, tough, solvent resistant plastic. It’s used for water, soft drink and detergent bottles. It’s recycled into bottles and polyester fibres.

2: HDPE or High Density Polyethylene

You can find HDPE in both rigid and soft plastic forms. It’s a very common plastic, and in the rigid form is usually white or coloured, and is used for milk bottles, shampoo bottles and cleaning products. Yarra accepts HDPE bottles only, which are recycled into more bottles or bags. As a soft plastic, HDPE is found in freezer bags, plastic bags, and other plastic food packaging.

3: PVC or Polyvinyl Chloride

This stuff is everywhere – pipes, toys, furniture and packaging. It’s difficult to recycle and contains harmful chemicals.

4: LDPE or Low Density Polyethylene

This is usually a soft, flexible plastic that’s used for different kinds of wrapping, bread bags, produce bags and bin bags.

5: PP or Polypropylene

This is a hard but still flexible plastic. It’s used for ice cream containers and lids and plastic take away containers. Yarra accepts food containers labelled 5 only. 

6: PS or Polystyrene

This is used to make cups, foam food trays and packing materials. It’s also known as Styrofoam and is a real problem as it’s bulky yet very light and this makes it difficult to recycle.

7: Other

This shows the item could be a mixture of any and all of the above or a plastic that is not readily recyclable, such as polyurethane.

At SRWRA’s Southern Material Recycling Facility (SMRF), we are able to process plastic types 1, 2 and 5.  

The material in your Yellow Bin is transported by truck to our Southern Materials Recovery Facility (SMRF) at Seaford Heights.

The SMRF acts like a giant filter and sorts recycling back to its material type, including paper, cardboard, plastics, steel, aluminium, and glass. 

Once separated, the materials are passed on to specialist processors that prepare the material for reuse. For example, plastics are passed on to processes that turn them into items such as pellets or flakes. 

It all goes towards ensuring we keep as much waste as possible from landfill. 

Your Red Bin is for general household rubbish that cannot go in the recycling or organics bins, including:

• Soft plastics (eg. plastic wrap, cling film, magazine sleeves, plastic bags, bin liners)
• Nappies
• Kitty litter (wrapped)
• Clothing and rags
• Rope
• Garden hoses
• Broken glassware and crockery (wrapped)
• Polystyrene and foam packaging
• Bubble wrap and plastic strapping

NO! Batteries are highly hazardous and can spark fires in collection trucks or SRWRA facilities. Because of this, you should never place batteries in your Yellow Bin. SRWRA does not accept any batteries.

If you have batteries of any kind that need to be recycled, they must be taken to a specialist recycler or dropped off at a battery recycling collection point. Many councils offer a free battery drop-off service. Give your local council a call to find out if they’re participating, and where locations are. 

Following the recycling guidelines helps reduce contamination of the recycling products and ensures the safety of those working on the sorting lines.

The Southern Region Waste Resource Authority (SRWRA) is a world class integrated waste and recycling facility that includes South Australia’s largest and most technically advanced Materials Recovery Facility. We joint venture with industry experts and pride ourselves in employing innovative resource recovery solutions to support the circular economy.

Our joint venture partners include Integrated Waste Services (IWS) for the provision of the Southern Recycling Centre and Re.Group for the provision of the Southern Materials Recovery Facility.

SRWRA is a regional subsidiary established by the Cities of Onkaparinga, Marion and Holdfast Bay, pursuant to Section 43 of the Local Government Act, 1999.

Under our Charter, SRWRA is responsible for providing and operating waste management services on behalf of our Constituent Councils.

Our Southern Materials Recovery Facility (SMRF) currently processes around 41,000 tonnes per year, but it has the capacity to process more than 80,000 tonnes per year.

The Southern Recycling Centre (SRC) provides a central service to the Cities of Onkaparinga, Marion and Holdfast Bay council areas, as well as the City of Mitcham, helping minimise the amount of kerbside waste they send to landfill. 

The SRC is a Joint Venture with Integrated Waste Services and plays a significant role in the diversion of organic waste from landfill, processing over 70,000 tonnes of household rubbish a year.

Using advanced technology, the SRC processes Municipal Solid Waste from the kerbside rubbish bins and extracts the organic material from the waste stream. This organic material is then pasteurised, screened and used as part of landfill capping, which means it is used as a protective barrier between landfill and the surrounding environment. 

SRWRA is home to a world class renewable energy facility, which combines bioenergy and solar technologies to deliver reliable renewable electricity for the southern region of Adelaide.

SRWRA’s Renewable Energy Hub produces over 25,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy every year. 

Working with LMS Energy, the Renewable Energy Hub utilises cutting-edge technology in both biogas capture and solar farm systems. The result is enough reliable renewable energy to power 13,000 people, or 500,000 electric vehicles every day.