Where things actually go
Sorting happens before loading, not at the tip. A mixed truck can only be tipped as mixed waste, so the decisions that matter are made in your driveway.
First: donation, genuinely first
A held household is usually a third still-useful things: sound furniture, complete kitchen sets, clean linen, books. Those are offered to local charities before anything else is decided, and if you want to know where a piece went, ask us and we will tell you. Willoughby Council itself makes the same point about kerbside piles: most of what goes to the kerb is landfilled, so giving good things away beats putting them out.[1]
Two honest limits. Charities take what they can sell or give, not everything we wish they would; and donation is a judgement made item by item, not a promise that nothing is waste.
Then: the regulated streams
| Stream | What is in it | Where it rides |
|---|---|---|
| E-waste | TVs, computers, monitors, printers, small appliances | A licensed e-waste facility. Electronic waste does not belong in general waste in NSW, and a crew that tips it mixed is doing it wrong.[2] |
| Mattresses | Any mattress, any base with springs | A mattress recycling stream, where the steel and foam are recovered. |
| White goods and metal | Fridges, washers, dryers, barbecues, filing cabinets | Scrap metal recycling. Fridges are degassed at the facility, not in your driveway. |
| Green waste | Prunings, clippings, branches, turf | Kept separate and mulched or composted where practical, which is why it never rides mixed with household junk. |
The streams that are not ours to take
Paint, gas bottles, pool and garden chemicals, motor oils and anything that might be asbestos are specialist streams. Household quantities of chemicals go free to a NSW EPA Household Chemical CleanOut event or to the Community Recycling Centre in Artarmon;[3] asbestos needs a licensed asbestos contractor. We flag these on the walk-through, set them aside safely, and point you to the right door. A crew that offers to make them disappear in a mixed load is a crew to send away.
Last: the licensed facility
What remains after donation and the streams rides to a licensed waste facility, weighed in and accounted for. In NSW the transport and disposal of waste is regulated by the EPA, including where waste may lawfully be taken;[4] the short version for a household is simple: your waste should arrive somewhere licensed to receive it, with paperwork, every time.
What we will not tell you
We will not quote you a recycling percentage, because we do not audit one, and any crew that announces "we recycle 80 percent" without a published methodology is decorating. What we can promise is the order of operations above, applied to every load: donation first, streams separated, licensed facility last.
Sources
- Willoughby City Council, Kerbside bulky waste clean-up collections. The council notes most kerbside clean-up material is sent to landfill and asks residents to consider selling, donating or giving away good-quality items first.
- NSW EPA, Electrical and electronic waste. E-waste streams and why they are handled separately from general waste in NSW.
- NSW EPA, Household Chemical CleanOut. Free drop-off events for household quantities of problem waste; Willoughby's Community Recycling Centre in Artarmon serves the same purpose year-round.
- NSW EPA, Transporting waste. The rules governing who may move waste in NSW and where it may lawfully be taken.
Tell us what goes. We do the rest.
Send the form and we ring you back to arrange a look at the job. The price is fixed on sight, agreed before we lift a thing, and it covers the lifting, the loading, the sweep-up and the disposal.
- One fixed price, agreed before we start. No hourly rate, no tip fees added later.
- One visit for most jobs, booked at a time that suits your building or your street.
- Worthwhile things offered for donation first. Regulated streams go to licensed facilities.
Enquiries through this form are the fastest way to reach us while our phone line is being set up. We call you back.