On behalf of Yarra Ranges Council, welcome to 2026 and the second edition of the Star Mail News for the year.
I hope you are all reading this relaxed and refreshed from your Christmas and New Year’s. There will be many community members making the most of the school holidays, so I hope your January is filled with fun with your families.
This month, our hard waste collections will begin in the Yarra Valley. Our collection period will be starting later this year, from 27 January, to reduce roadside rubbish piles in the early new year.
The order of collections will also be changing, so I strongly encourage everyone to visit yarraranges.vic.gov.au/hardwaste to check collection weeks and see what you can put out.
I’d also like to ask our community members to please not put out their rubbish until the Sunday before their collection week starts, so we can keep the area looking beautiful and reduce the visual impact of roadside rubbish.
You can also place out bundled branches, mattresses, metals and whitegoods for collection. Items with an electrical cord or batteries – including computers, televisions, monitors and other electronics – will be sent for recycling. All other items will be sent to landfill.
We know that a lot of appliances, tools, toys and things around the house get replaced after Christmas time.
Anything that can be powered by batteries or a cord is classified as e-waste and can’t go in wheelie bins. This is because these items contain hazardous materials, like lead and mercury, as well as valuable materials that can be reused. These items can go out in your hard waste, but if they’re in good condition, they can also be donated, sold on marketplace or repaired.
If we think about how we dispose of our items, as well as what we buy and when we replace our things, we can all help live a little lighter on the earth.
For a full list of what can be put out for collection, and to check your collection week, visit yarraranges.vic.gov.au/hardwaste
