Book a doorstep recycling collection for tricky household items

Recycle soft plastics, batteries, polystyrene, clothes, electronics and other tricky items from your doorstep or apartment lobby with a free, contactless RecycleSmart Power Pickup.

Free if you subscribe for monthly pick-ups or $2 a bag for a single pick-up.

Project Status: When you need to do this

If you live in the City of Sydney local area and have small, tricky items to recycle that don’t belong in your regular household bins.

To dispose of large items like furniture, whitegoods, mattresses and large electronics book a free pick-up for bulky items.

Household Chemical CleanOut - Saturday 15 October

Drop off household chemicals, paint, cleaning products, batteries and more at our next Household Chemical CleanOut, 9am to 3.30pm on Saturday 15 October at Alexandra Canal Depot. Find out what's accepted.

What you need to do

Check that your items can be collected

- Small electronics like old phones, cords, laptops, tablets, game consoles, kettles, toasters, remotes, headphones and toys. Delete data from old phones, laptops and tablets.
- Soft plastics that you can scrunch in your hand, like plastic bags, bread bags, wrappers, chip packets and bubble wrap.
- Clothes in good condition including shoes, belts and handbags.
- Misfits like household batteries, polystyrene, light bulbs, printer cartridges, X-ray films, expired or unwanted medicine, takeaway coffee cups, and aluminium coffee pods. Separate lids from takeaway coffee cups, stack them and place lids and cups in separate plastic bags. Put aluminium coffee pods inside a tightly sealed plastic bag to stop leaks.
View the full list of items that can be collected.
- Large items: furniture, whitegoods, mattresses and large electronics. Instead book a free pick-up for bulky items.
- Household chemicals: oils, flammable liquids, poisons, pesticides, household and pool cleaners, motor oil, cooking oil. These can be recycled at a Household Chemical CleanOut collection.
- Large batteries: car batteries, power tool batteries, e-bike batteries. See our battery guide for where to recycle them.
- Gas bottles or fire extinguishers.
- Fluorescent lights.
- Underwear in any condition is not accepted.
- Shoes in bad or unwearable condition.
- Pillows or doonas.
- Items that can go in your recycling bins at home: bottles, plastic containers, glass, cardboard, foil and cans. Put them in your yellow lid bin.

Book a Power Pickup with RecycleSmart
1. Visit the RecycleSmart website or download the app on your phone.
2. Choose to subscribe to a free monthly pick-up of up to 2 bags, or a single pick-up for $2 per bag.
3. Select a date that’s convenient for you.

Book a Power Pickup

See how to bag tricky items and book a pick-up

Book a Power Pickup to recycle tricky items
Video showing how to bag tricky items up and book a Power Pickup using their app.

Prepare your items for collection
- Put all items inside a RecycleSmart bag or your own reusable supermarket shopping bag.
- If you live in an apartment building, write a note and attach it to the bag so your neighbours know it’s being collected.

Put your items out before 8am on your scheduled pick-up day
- A RecycleSmart driver will come by to collect your items before 2pm.
- If you live in an apartment building with secure access, you can leave your bags outside near the entry or letterboxes. Or if you’re home, leave them in the lobby and buzz the driver in.
- If you live in a house or terrace, leave your bags at your doorstep.

Retrieve your empty bags

The RecycleSmart driver will leave your empty sturdy reusable bags where you left them – don’t forget to retrieve them. The thinner plastic reusable bags you can purchase at many supermarkets will be taken for soft plastic recycling.

What happens next

The RecycleSmart driver picks up your bags between 8am and 2pm.
You’ll receive a notification when your items have been picked up.
Your items are delivered to our Alexandra Canal Depot, where they are reused or recycled by our contractors.

RecycleSmart driver carrying reusable shopping bag for collection.

If something doesn’t go to plan 🙁

If your bags aren’t picked up before 2pm on your scheduled day, contact RecycleSmart at [email protected] and they’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
If you need to change or edit your booking, log in to your account on the RecycleSmart website or app. Changes need to be made by 4pm the day before your scheduled pick-up.
If you forget to put out your bags, RecycleSmart will be in touch with you to reschedule your booking.
If items were left in your bag, they are likely not accepted. RecycleSmart will contact you with more information.

Why we’re doing this

We’re partnering with RecycleSmart to provide residents with a convenient way to recycle tricky items that don’t belong in kerbside rubbish or recycling bins.

The doorstep recycling service will help us reach our goal of zero waste to landfill by 2030.