Most skip bin sites have a paragraph about being environmentally responsible and leave it there. This one explains what actually happens to your load, because knowing the process is the only way to make useful decisions about how you fill the bin.
Separated and sold to scrap recyclers. Steel, copper and aluminium all have established markets, and this happens on nearly every mixed load.
Crushed into recycled aggregate and road base. There's a genuine buyer at the other end, which is why clean concrete is cheaper to dispose of than the same material mixed through general waste.
Either mulched or processed into a fuel product for industrial use. Treated and painted timber is handled separately because it can't go into garden products.
Composted into mulch and soil conditioner. It's the cleanest and cheapest stream in the industry.
Recovered where the load allows.
Goes to engineered landfill.
When we collect a bin, it goes to a transfer station or materials recovery facility rather than straight to landfill. There it's sorted.
Queensland charges a levy on waste sent to landfill. It's the mechanism the state uses to make recovery cheaper than disposal, and it works: it's a large part of why a green waste bin costs less than a general waste bin of the same size.
This is worth understanding because it aligns two things that usually pull against each other. Sorting your waste is better environmentally and it's cheaper. Not because anyone's being generous, but because material that gets recovered doesn't attract the levy and often has a resale value.
So the environmental advice and the financial advice are the same advice, which doesn't happen often.
Being honest about this matters more than the marketing version.
Mixed material bonded together, like carpet with underlay glued to it or painted plasterboard with fixings through it, is difficult or uneconomic to separate. Contaminated soil requires specialist assessment. Asbestos goes to a dedicated cell at a licensed facility and can't go in any skip bin. And a portion of general household waste has no current recovery pathway and is landfilled.
Anyone telling you a mixed general waste bin is fully recycled is overselling it. The realistic goal is a good diversion rate, not a perfect one.
Excluded from every bin: asbestos, liquid paint, solvents, pesticides, motor oil, gas bottles, fire extinguishers, batteries, tyres and clinical waste.
No, and anyone who says otherwise is overstating it. A meaningful share is recovered, and how you fill the bin determines how much.
Clean concrete and green waste, both close to fully recovered. Scrap metal is also very high.
Usually less. Clean single-stream loads have lower disposal fees, and separating often beats one large mixed bin on total cost.
A charge on waste sent to landfill. It's why recovery is priced below disposal.
No. It can't be composted and it contaminates the load.
Ask when you book and we'll tell you what the facility can provide for your job.
Licensed facilities in South East Queensland that sort for recovery. Ring if you want specifics for your job.
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