Chemicals and e-waste

E-waste is any electronic item that has a plug, battery or cord.

The Victorian Government banned all e-waste from landfill in July 2019. This means you cannot put batteries, hair dryers etc. in your red general waste bin.

Our resource recovery facilities will accept a range of household electrical appliances for free.

This includes mobiles and chargers, desktop computers, laptops, computer mice, monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, computer power supplies, network cards, CD drives, vapes, televisions, VCR players, DVD players and all whitegoods or appliances with a power plug/cord.

You can also dispose of old mobile phones, batteries and chargers as part of the MobileMuster collection.

Because it's good for the environment. All e-waste contains hazardous materials. These can range from heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium to ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and flame retardants.

Even in small amounts, these dangerous chemicals can cause environmental contamination. These substances can leach into soil and groundwater, or release into the air, creating long-term environmental contamination issues. Many of these substances are particularly dangerous because they take a long time to breakdown.

When recycled properly, valuable resources from e-waste can be collected and reused. Valuable resources include:

• tin
• nickel
• zinc
• aluminium
• copper
• silver
• gold
• glass
• plastic

Learn more about recycling e-waste by visiting Sustainability Victoria.

To help make your home or office a little greener, you can now drop off your used or empty laser and ink-jet cartridges at all of our customer service centres. Any toner or ink cartridge from a fax, photocopier or printer from a participating brand will be accepted at Council resource recovery facilities, customer service centres and some neighbourhood houses.

Planet Ark aims to return cartridges to their original producers to be re-manufactured. The rest are dismantled and used to make products like pens, rulers, outdoor furniture and white goods.

To find out more, visit Cartridges 4 Planet Ark or Recycling near you.

Unwanted chemicals may harm the environment when you pour them down the sink or put them in the rubbish bin. Sustainability Victoria's Detox Your Home events are licensed to accept toxic chemicals and are staffed by trained specialist chemists so you can dispose of chemicals safely. 

Detox Your Home events

Around 40 pop-up events are hosted around Victoria each year in partnership with local councils.

Events in the Macedon Ranges will be listed below as dates are confirmed.

You can find other Detox Your Home events on the Sustainability Victoria Website.

Which items are accepted?

Sustainability Victoria has a detailed list that helps you figure out what's accepted and what's not at Detox Your Home events.

An example of chemicals accepted include: acid and alkalis, cleaners, cooking oil, detergents, disinfectants, paint stripper, thinner, turps, rat poison, fertiliser, insect spray and some fuels. 

An example of items not accepted are: ammunition, asbestos, batteries, business or commercial quantities of chemicals, lights, gas cylinders, medical waste, motor oil and paint. 

While Detox Your Home events do not accept paint, you can organise a free drop-off of unwanted household and trade paint through paintback (up to 100 litres).

Empty paint tins are accepted at our resource recovery facilities.

Council and MobileMuster are calling on residents to recycle their old mobile phones, handsets, batteries, chargers and accessories at collection points throughout the Macedon Ranges, or post them free of charge to MobileMuster. Visit MobileMuster to download your free postage mailing label.

We also accept mobile phones for free at our resource recovery facilities. 

Mobile phones, batteries, chargers and accessories are not biodegradable and should not be thrown in the rubbish bin where they will end up in landfill. More than 90% of the materials in mobile phones can be recovered for re-use. They contain many useful metals like copper, silver and gold as well as plastic.

We participate in the drumMUSTER recycling program that allows you to dispose of empty chemical containers at our Kyneton resource recovery facility for recycling at no cost.

drumMUSTER is a national program that allows for the collection and recycling of clean and eligible chemical containers.

Dry and triple-rinsed containers and drums marked with the drumMUSTER symbol are accepted.