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Get involved

We work with local community and business, helping to protect our natural environment and ensuring that waste goes in the right place.

Attend a workshop

Council hosts a number of workshops to share ideas on how to reduce waste and recycle more.

Learn how to compost food scraps, upcycle and reuse items, pickle and preserve food, and more.

Register for a workshop

How you can cut waste

  • Avoid and reduce waste every day
  • Put waste in the right place. Use one of Council’s various recycling programs – such as the Mobile Community Recycling Service for electronic waste, paint, batteries and more. 

Reuse and recycle

Share and reuse

  • Borrow from friends or use second hand options before buying new items
  • Mend clothes rather than replacing them
  • Celebrate using paper-based decorations. Then reuse or recycle them
  • Ask: ‘Do I really need this item? Can it be borrowed? Is there a reusable or recycled alternative?’

Avoid and reduce waste

  • Buy products with less packaging
  • Put a No Junk Mail sticker on your letterbox
  • Get a reusable coffee cup at the coffee cart in the Merrylands Library courtyard
  • Use a reusable drink bottle. Refill it at Sydney Water drinking stations across local parks.

Recycle more

  • Compost food scraps or get a worm farm, rebates are available
  • Hold onto recyclables when out and about until you get home or find the right bin
  • Give unwanted items in good condition to charity

Furniture that’s in good condition

Unwanted household goods can be donated to the Bower’s Collection and Rehoming Service. This is an environmental charity that offers free collection.

Help cut pollution

Keep our air clean

  • Keep your car serviced
  • Don’t burn rubbish or treated/painted wood
  • Make sure your wood heater is efficient and produces as little air pollution as possible by meeting the Australian Standard 4013
  • Keep home fires burning brightly – smouldering creates smoke
  • Make sure your firewood is 8 to 12 months old and dry

Avoid creating too much smoke – fines apply

If others notice excessive smoke coming from your chimney for 6 months or more, a $200 to $400 Smoke Abatement Direction fine may be sent to you under the Protection of Environment Operations Act 1997

Reduce waste and land pollution

  • Reduce waste by buying products with less packaging.
  • Compost food scraps or get a worm farm, rebates are available
  • Use natural cleaning products, rather than chemicals.
  • Get a No Junk Mail sticker for your letterbox.
  • Give unwanted items in good condition to charity.

Reduce water pollution

  • Wash cars on the grass or at a car wash, not the street or driveway
  • Don’t clean paintbrushes outside on footpaths or on the street
  • Don’t allow oils or chemicals to wash into the gutter
  • Don’t hose garden waste or clippings into the gutter
  • Don’t allow rain to wash soil or sediments from building sites into the gutter
  • $4,000 to $8,000 fines can be made on the spot for polluting waterways

Use your household green bin

Dispose of grass clippings, leaves and small branches in your household green bin. This garden waste will be sent off to be made into natural, nutritious mulch that returns to nature.

Further information

Talk to us about school education programs, request bin stickers or ask a question by calling 8757 9000.