Proudly plastic free

We are supporting businesses to go plastic free through our Proudly plastic free program.

Coffee grounds

A typical café generates 60 kilograms of coffee grounds a week and currently most of this ends up in landfill. You can avoid wasting a valuable organic resource by:

• 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

Recycling saves energy, water, precious metals – all sorts of resources – doing our planet a favour. Find out what can and can’t be recycled via your recycling bin.

Waste and recycling educational signs

Help your workplace improve the way we recycle to recover valuable resources and keep them out of landfill. Below you’ll find some handy posters for different business types which show what to put in each bin using images that are relevant for your workplace. Print and display these waste and recycling educational signs to help staff understand which items go into the recycling and rubbish bins.

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

Hospitality posters

• Glass bin (519 KB / PDF)
• Recycling bin (1,298 KB / PDF)
• Rubbish bin (1,467 KB / PDF)

Toolkit for businesses and commercial buildings

We’ve developed a toolkit for business which includes loads of information on how to use the new glass bin and how to make the most of the new Council 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 (4,841 KB / PDF) 

Bin Posters for businesses with a private service

Some businesses have a private waste collection (not serviced by Yarra). The items accepted by their recycling processors are different to the items accepted by Yarra's recycling processor.

• Recycling poster – private service (PDF, 771KB)
• Rubbish poster – private service (PDF, 597KB)
• Recycling sticker – private service (PDF, 433KB)

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

• Paper and cardboard sign (973KB, PDF)
• Food and organics sign (615KB, PDF)
• Electrical waste sign (211KB, PDF)
• Soft plastics sign (478KB, PDF)
• Polystyrene sign (142KB, PDF)
• Batteries sign (57KB, PDF)
• CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes sign (154KB, PDF)

Electronic waste

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

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

Yarra's Circular Economy Map

We have developed an online tool to help residents and businesses alike to join the circular economy. The circular economy helps us all reduce waste by reframing how we think about the value of materials. Circular economy principles aim to design out waste from the beginning and keep products in use for longer. Find out more on Yarra’s Circular Economy Map webpage.

Waste collection

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