These facilities and services help to improve commercial waste management and increase recycling, while improving public amenity. Business need to apply to join our waste and recycling hub service.
Recycling hubs
City of Melbourne cardboard and mixed recycling bins are accessible 24/7. Recycling helps reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and improve amenity issues in busy central city locations. Paper, cardboard, glass, aluminium, plastic bottles and containers can be recycled.
Waste compactors
Waste compactors take non-recyclable materials to landfill. The machine compresses the garbage so that a lot more can fit in compared to normal garbage bins. Fees apply for most businesses. Usage fees are charged according to usage.
Access fees
| Usage level | Fee per quarter (including GST) | Maximum frequency of use |
|---|---|---|
| Low | $441.40 | Up to seven times per week |
| Medium | $1639.10 | Up to three times per day |
| High | $2611.70 | Up to seven times per day |
| Very high | $3560.80 | More than seven times per day or over 1000 kg deposited weekly |
Additional fees
- Replacement compactor access card: $66.60
- Reactivation payment fee: $109.10
Payment of waste compactor account reactivation fees, as well as the collection and payment of new or replacement access cards will be from Melbourne Town Hall. Customers will need to book an appointment by calling 03 9658 9658.
Access and additional fee pricing may be adjusted.
Degraves Street Recycling Facility
This facility processes plastics, paper, cardboard, aluminium, glass and food waste from businesses.
Recycling and food waste is collected from custom-designed recycling hubs in Degraves Place and Centre Place, as well as door-to-door for some businesses. Both Literature Lane and Caledonian Lane precincts have food waste collected door-to-door and transported via e-bikes.
If you would like to access the Degraves Street Recycling Facility, contact City of Melbourne on 03 9658 9658.
Find out more about managing food waste.
Application requests and reporting issues
Apply to join or report an issue with a card, waste compactor or recycling hub
Text on screen 'Waste and recycling projects'
[Speaker: Gordon Harrison, Team leader, Engineering programs] The City of Melbourne initiated these waste management programs to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill to improve recycling and to make the city amenity better.
We are doing that by working in partnership with residents and businesses and getting them to come along with us on what is really a change management journey. And as part of that we've set up things like new compactors and recycling hubs to make it as easy as possible for people to join with us.
Text on screen 'Compactors and recycling hubs in laneways'
[Speaker: Sally Blastock, Project Manager, Waste Standards] The compactors in laneways and recycling hub project is an initiative that the City of Melbourne is taking. Our main focus is amenity issues that go on with bins in public spaces and that includes everything from dump rubbish, leaking, smelling overflowing bins.
The compactors are a way that businesses and residents can dispose of their garbage and their recycling, rather than each having their own individual bins stored outside. It's just one central hub, one central place.
[Speaker: Ian Clarke, Kirks Wine Bar] The recycling hubs are very important to a business like ours. For us, as we are quite a small business ,small wine bar, we had issues with storage of rubbish ,and this is actually completely solved that issue no questions asked. It's helped a local community really kind of enjoy and love their areas a lot more. It's just lovely it's clean its organised and it's not a visual issue for anybody to deal with. Thank you'
