Food and green waste

City of Stonnington collects the food and green waste bin every two weeks. It's an opt-in service. You can request a food and green waste bin for your household online.

Request a bin for your household

Apartment blocks with City of Stonnington waste services can request food and green waste bins. An owners corporation representative will need to fill out the request form.

You can save money by reducing the amount of garbage bins your building has. If you've ordered extra garbage bins in the past, swap some for food and green waste bins.

For more information, view our Owners corporation managers information pack(PDF, 828KB).

Request a bin for your property

If you rent a property, only owners and owners corporation agents can change your waste service. This is because a cost is added to the rates notice, which the owner pays. However, there are other ways you can give your food and green waste a second life.

If you rent a house or unit with a private outdoor space, you can:

• ask your landlord to get a food and green waste bin
• compost at home and enjoy the benefits in your garden.

If you rent an apartment, you can:

• ask your owners corporation to get shared food and green waste bins (your building must already use Council bins)
• apply to join our Apartment Composting Program
• take your food waste to your nearest food waste drop-off point.

The following items can go in your food and green waste bin:

• bones, meat, meat scraps or seafood
• branches (up to 10 cm in diameter and 40 cm long)
• bread, cakes or pastries
• citrus, onion or garlic
• goffee grounds, coffee beans or loose leaf tea
• compostable lime green liners (look for the code AS4736 on the liner)
• dairy and egg products (including shells)
• fruit and vegetable scraps and waste
• hair (human and animal)
• lawn or grass clippings
• leaves
• leftovers
• expired food
• newspapers (small amounts, soiled or wet)
• paper towel
• pasta or rice
• tissues
• shredded paper
• toothpicks, skewers, cutlery and chopsticks (uncoated, wooden or bamboo).

The following items can't go in your food and green waste bin:

• coffee pods and tea bags
• cooking oil
• dirt, stones, soil, sand, bricks or rubble
• food packaging (plastic, cardboard or compostable)
• hoses
• household garbage
• garden pots
• kitty litter
• liquids (cooking oils, sauces)
• nappies (including compostable)
• packaging (compostable)
• pet poo
• plastic bags and wraps
• shellfish shells (hard such as oyster shells)
• stickers and labels.

The drop-off points are located at:

• Armadale Baptist Church, Armadale
• Claremont Street, South Yarra - closer to Yarra Street entrance, in front of Melbourne High School oval
• Nearby Grattan Gardens Community Centre, 40 Grattan Street, Prahran.

Each drop-off point includes signage to support their correct use.

Ellis Street carpark, South Yarra - Trial closed

Ellis Street carpark food waste drop-off trial has ended and the bin has been removed. Please use another drop-off point.

To use our food waste drop-off point:

• use a small container with a lid to collect food waste at home
• fill the container with food scraps such as meat, seafood, bones, dairy, vegetables, onions and citrus
• when full, take your container to your nearest food waste drop-off point
• rinse out your container at home.

Use our A-Z waste and recycling guide to view a full list of items you can compost at home.

Yes, compostable lime green liners (look for the code AS4736 on the packaging) can be used to collect your food scraps. These can be purchased from local supermarkets.

Let us know what you think and whether we can improve the service with this short survey.

If you notice an overflowing bin or unpleasant odour at a drop-off point, email council@stonnington.vic.gov.au or call customer service on 03 8290 1333.