Where to Donate, Recycle and Dispose of Things on the Northern Beaches

On the Northern Beaches, most things you declutter have a free or low-cost place to go. Wearable clothes and complete household goods go to op shops. Furniture, mattresses and whitegoods go out in a council bulky-goods collection, which mainland households can pre-book twice in 12 months. TVs, computers, batteries, light globes and paint can be dropped at Kimbriki in Ingleside for free, and chemicals, pool products and gas bottles go to the NSW EPA's free Household Chemical CleanOut events. Below is where each type of item goes, what isn't accepted, and the mistakes that get a pile left on your kerb.

Council bulky-goods clean-ups

Northern Beaches Council's bulky-goods collection is the easiest way to move large items. Mainland households that pay the domestic waste management charge can pre-book two collections within 12 months, subject to availability. Western Foreshore and Scotland Island households get two scheduled collections a year instead.

Accepted: furniture, mattresses, whitegoods and electricals, plus smaller extras such as rolled and tied carpet up to 1.8 metres long (a maximum of three rolls) and empty beanbags.

Not accepted: smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, gas bottles (full or empty), chemicals, paint, batteries, items with a battery that can't be removed, and building or renovation material, including insulation, bricks, rubble and asbestos. The exception is up to one built-in household item.

If you're decluttering a whole house or garage, book the collection first and plan your sorting around the date. Anything on the "not accepted" list needs to be separated before the truck comes, because it will be left behind.

On the North Shore?

Each council sets its own rules. On the Upper North Shore, Ku-ring-gai Council allows four booked clean-ups per property each calendar year, up to 3 cubic metres with no item longer than 2 metres; paint, chemicals and building waste aren't accepted. Lane Cove Council offers four free booked clean-ups a year. Willoughby City Council provides one free booked collection and three free scheduled collections each calendar year. Mosman Council runs scheduled free clean-ups plus pre-paid collections. North Sydney Council takes bookings for household bulky-waste pick-ups. Check your council's website for current limits before putting anything out.

Kimbriki: what you can drop off free

Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre is on Kimbriki Road, Ingleside, off Mona Vale Road. It's owned by Northern Beaches Council and Mosman Council, and opens 7am to 5pm daily (closed Good Friday and Christmas Day). Plenty of items cost nothing to recycle there:

• TVs and computers, including small printers, through the national TV and computer recycling scheme
• Batteries: household, rechargeable, button cell, lead-acid, and devices with embedded batteries
• Light globes and fluorescent tubes: intact and out of packaging, tubes up to 1.2 metres, maximum 10 items per visit
• Paint: up to 100 litres, in containers of 20 litres or less with lids secured
• Motor oil, cardboard and paper, and scrap metal
• Clothing donations, and toys in good condition at the Toy Shed

Mixed general waste is charged by weight. Northern Beaches and Mosman residents pay discounted resident rates when they show proof of residency. One thing people get wrong: the Buy Back Centre at Kimbriki sells salvaged items but does not accept donations.

Chemicals, pool products and gas bottles

Never put these in any bin or out for clean-up. The NSW EPA runs free Household Chemical CleanOut events that take household quantities of cleaning products, poisons, acids, pool chemicals, motor oils, fuels, gas bottles, batteries and paint, up to 20 litres or 20 kilograms of any single item. Some events also accept up to 100 litres of paint. Event dates and locations are published at cleanout.com.au.

Electronics, phones, ink and cables

Officeworks runs a free Bring it Back recycling program at most stores for computers, laptops, monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, hard drives, cables and chargers, plus ink and toner cartridges. Old mobile phones and their accessories are recycled through MobileMuster at Officeworks. Before recycling any device, back it up, sign out of your accounts and do a factory reset so your data goes with it.

Batteries

Loose household batteries (AA, AAA, C, D, 9V and button cells) can go in B-cycle recycling bins found at Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Bunnings and Officeworks stores. Put clear sticky tape over the terminals of each battery first. Batteries should never go in household bins, where they can start fires in collection trucks.

Clothes, shoes and linen

Op shops such as Salvos, Vinnies and Lifeline take clean, wearable clothing and shoes. Please don't donate stained or torn clothes, because charities have to pay to dispose of them. For worn-out textiles, H&M stores run a clothing take-back. Northern Beaches Council's online Reuse and Recycling Map shows nearby clothing bins and other drop-off points.

Furniture

Good-quality furniture has a few routes out:

• Vinnies NSW takes furniture pick-up bookings online, Monday to Friday, with suburbs visited on set days and availability limited by resources.
• Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and local Buy Nothing groups move furniture quickly if it's priced low or free and the buyer collects.
• Council bulky-goods collection for anything that can't be rehomed.

Toys and children's things

Clean, complete toys can go to op shops or to Kimbriki's Toy Shed. If the toy pile is the problem, the Cubby House Toy Library, run by EarlyEd, lets families borrow from more than 2,400 toys, games and books for a small annual subscription, with pick-up at Manly and Mona Vale libraries and at Forestville. Borrowing means less comes into the house in the first place.

Garden waste and the green bin

The green bin is for garden vegetation only: shrubs, weeds, leaves, grass clippings, prunings, branches under 75mm thick, and cut flowers without packaging. Food scraps are not accepted, and neither are compostable packaging, compostable nappies or plant pots. Kitchen scraps can go into a home compost bin or worm farm.

Paper and documents

Plain paper and cardboard go in the blue bin. Shred anything with account numbers, tax file numbers, signatures or medical details first. Before you shred financial records, remember that the ATO asks individuals to keep tax records for five years from the date they lodged the return.

Stopping it coming back in: junk mail

A "No Junk Mail" or "Addressed Mail Only" sign on your letterbox stops unaddressed catalogues and flyers from Australia Post posties. For addressed promotional mail, ask the business to remove you from its list. ADMA's Do Not Mail register also helps, but it only covers ADMA's member companies.