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Recycling and reducing waste as a business

We provide many initiatives to support businesses in their efforts to reduce waste including plastic free, circular economy and waste collection.

Learn about our programs and initiatives

We are supporting businesses to go plastic free through our Proudly plastic free program. This is a whole-of-community plan to reduce the use of single-use plastic packaging.

Did you know a typical café generates 60 kilograms of coffee grounds a week, most of which ends up in landfill?

Environmentally friendly options for coffee grounds include:

  • Setting up a worm farm. Worm farms can manage a small amount of coffee grounds.
  • Compost bins like coffee grounds. When adding grounds, mix two thirds coffee grounds to one third leaves.
  • Services such as Reground pick up coffee ground waste and redistribute it to where it's needed - to community gardens or commercial composting facilities.

Recycling saves energy, water, precious metals and all sorts of resources. Find out what can and can't be recycled via your recycling bin.

Below you'll find some handy posters for different business types which show what to put in each bin. Print and display these signs to help everyone understand which items go into recycling.

If your business is serviced by Council, you will have a purple-lidded glass bin for your glass bottles and jars (items accepted in the yellow-lidded recycling bin is different to other areas).

Posters

We've developed a toolkit for business which includes information on how to use the new glass bin and how to make the most of our rubbish and recycling service.

We've also included tips on assessing your waste, how to engage your staff and comprehensive information on how to responsibly dispose of items that don't belong in your kerbside bins.

Download our business toolkit [ PDF, 4.73 MB]

Some businesses have a private waste collection (not serviced by Council). The items accepted by their recycling processors are different to the items accepted by us.

If your business has separate collections for other waste streams, you can download and use these signs:

Electronic waste is anything with a battery or a plug, including phones, laptops, appliances and toys. Electronic waste is banned from landfill and must be disposed of at a designated collection point for recycling.

Find an e-waste drop-off point in Yarra.

A circular economy describes the way things are made and consumed so as to minimise the use of resources and reduce waste and carbon emissions.

We have developed an online tool to help residents and businesses join the circular economy. Find out more on Circular Economy Map.

For general information on our waste collection services for businesses, visit business waste collection.