Kerbside Recycling
Sunshine Coast Council provides a
fortnightly recycling collection service for
domestic, multiple dwelling and commercial
premises within the region. The yellow
lidded 240 litre wheelie bin is for your
recyclable domestic waste only. It is a
commingled bin, meaning you can place all
of your recyclables in the same bin.
How to prepare your recyclables
Once the recyclables are collected from your
home they are taken to the Material Recovery
Facility or MRF (pronounced “Murf”) at the
Nambour Landfill and Resource Recovery
Centre. Here they are sorted and separated into
material types, then sold to different recycling
companies who process them into the new
products.
What CAN go in your yellow lidded
recycle bin?
Plastics with numbers 1 to 6, clean and dry
cardboards and paper, glass bottles and jars
only, and aluminium and steel cans and
aerosols only.

Rinse containers using old dishwashing
water.

Remove lids and labels where possible.

Reduce bottles and containers by
squashing them, and flatten cardboard
boxes.

Do NOT place recyclables inside plastic
bags – place recyclables loosely into the
recycle bin.
Not everything made of
plastic, steel, aluminium,
glass or paper can go in
your kerbside recycle
bin. Some items need to
be dropped off at your
local Transfer or
Resource Recovery
Centre. Use this sticker
as a guide of what can
go in this bin. Contact
customer service on
5475 7272 if you require
a recycle sticker.
What CANNOT go in your yellow
lidded recycle bin?
×
Plastic bags
×
Nappies
×
Scrap metals
×
Clothes
×
Styrofoam
×
Garden waste
×
Plastic wrappings
×
Syringes
×
Drink glasses
1 of 2 Kerbside Recycling and Materials Recovery Facility Fact Sheet
How are recyclables recovered from
your recycle bin?
The Materials Recovery Facility, or MRF
(pronounced “Murf”), receives commingled
recyclables. Items are sorted and separated
into material types using both mechanical and
manual processes, then sold for reprocessing.
The MRF process also removes ‘unwanted’
items, or contaminations, that are placed in
recycle bins to ensure that a cleaner, more
valuable recyclable material is sold for
reprocessing.
The locations of the MRF’s that sort the
recyclables are different due to differing
contracts. The recyclables of the South district
are transported to the Petrie MRF; while the
recyclables of the Central and North districts
are taken to the Sunshine Coast MRF at
Nambour.
Collection and receivable
Recyclables are collected from your yellow
lidded wheelie bin and delivered to the MRF by
recycling collection trucks. The commingled
load is emptied into a receival bay and fed onto
a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt feeds the
load through an auger (a metal corkscrew) to
loosen and separate the commingled materials
for ease of sorting.

Air classification and bounce belts further
sort materials based on weight properties
and assist in removing plastics, paper and
cardboard from other material containers.

Optical sorting technology segregates
materials based on a variety of properties,
including density and colour, and assists in
sorting paper, glass and plastic types.
Baling and preparation
The recyclables are directed to baling
machines, or bunkers for glass, as they are
separated from the sorting line. These baling
machines compress the recyclables for
stockpile storage awaiting transport to the
reprocessing facilities.
Contamination issues
Many of the sorting processes can be damaged
or stalled by non-recyclables such as plastic
bags, batteries, or fridge, car, computer, and
microwave parts. For this reason, it is important
to follow the recycle bin sticker guidelines and
help to ensure recycling efficiency. Check with
your local Resource Recovery Centre or
Transfer Station for other recyclable collection
points or check Council’s website for further
recycling opportunities. If you require a sticker,
or further information, contact customer service
on 5475 7272.
Separation
Various manual and mechanical processes are
responsible for the sorting and separating of
paper, cardboard, plastics, steel, aluminium,
glass, and contamination. The common
processes for separation include:

Trommels and screens sort materials based
on size and weight properties, and assist in
sorting containers from paper and
cardboard, and glass fines (small pieces of
glass) or contamination from recyclables.

Magnets separate ferrous metals (i.e. steel
cans and aerosols) by attracting and lifting
them from the sorting line.

Eddy currents separate non-ferrous metals
(i.e. aluminium cans and aerosols) by
repelling and accelerating them off the
sorting line.
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Kerbside Recycling and Materials Recovery Facility Fact Sheet