Community recycling centres

Community Recycling Centre in Leichhardt

Address: 50-54 Moore Street, Leichhardt
Opening hours: Saturday and Sunday, 7:45am to 11:30am, and then 1pm to 3:45pm. 

Community Recycling Centre in St Peters

Address: 15-17 Unwins Bridge Road, St Peters (entry at rear, through Bolton Street)

Opening hours: Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 1pm.  

Accepted items at both locations

Only household quantities are accepted - 20kg or 20 litre maximum container size. If item is leaking wrap in a plastic bag and place in a container.

Problem waste:

• Gas bottles
• Fire extinguishers
• Paints
• Fluorescent globes and tubes
• Car and household batteries
• Motor and cooking oil 
• Smoke detectors
• Aerosols

Chemicals other than listed above will not be accepted. You can drop those for free at our Household Chemical and E-waste Events in St Peters or at a Chemical CleanOut event in another Council area that permits residents from every local government area.

Electronic waste:

• Computer and TVs
• TVs and monitors
• DVD player and sound equipment
• Electric heaters
• Check our list of accepted items to find out all the items you can drop off

Council recommends deleting any personal data from your devices before dropping them off for recycling.

What will happen to the problem waste?

Paints - are mixed with other waste solvents and used as an alternative to fuel in cement kilns. The metal containers are recycled.

Gas bottles -  are retested, restamped and entered into the hire industry; damaged bottles are punctured and recycled as scrap metal; the residual gas is captured for reuse. 

Used oils - are processed to become a lubricant.

Lead acid batteries - are sent to recyclers where the lead, acid and plastic are recovered and recycled

Fluorescent tubes and globes - they contain mercury. Recyclers crush the tubes to separate the phosphor powder from the glass. They feed the powder through receiving containers, where it is filtered to capture fugitive mercury emissions. The mercury is then separated by distillation and sold for a range of industrial uses. The remaining glass and metals are also recycled.

What will happen to the e-waste?

E-waste that is dropped off at our locations is collected and recycled. Hazardous components are removed from e-waste and other commodities in the items such as steel, copper and aluminium are processed to be sold into market to make new products. The hazardous components that are removed are either processed further by our contractor or sent to facilities in Australia, where they are processed further, and handled appropriately. No whole units are exported or sent overseas for processing. The contractor monitors and audits all of the destinations where commodities are sent.

The Community Recycling Centres are an initiative of Inner West Council and the NSW EPA.