Forty of Victoria's 79 councils say the state's mandatory purple lid glass bin doesn't work for their patch, and the major parties are now trading blows over whether to scrap the whole mandate before it locks in. Geelong City Council alone is looking at $8.6 million to set the system up, then $5.4 million a year just to keep it running.
It's a handy reminder that "recyclable" isn't a promise, it's an infrastructure project. And infrastructure projects come with a council budget line, a state mandate, and apparently, an election issue attached.
The mandate councils want out of
Victoria announced the purple lid glass bin as part of its four bin system overhaul back in 2020, with a state requirement to roll it out to every household by July 2027. So far 42 of the state's 79 councils have introduced it. The other 40 or so have decided it isn't right for their community, and the Municipal Association of Victoria says a "one size fits all, mandated solution is not the correct way" to handle it.
What it actually costs
Geelong's numbers are the sharpest example: $8.6 million to implement, then $5.4 million every year after. Compare that to Hobsons Bay, where the existing glass bin system collected more than 1,400 tonnes of glass in the past financial year with just 3 per cent contamination. Same idea, wildly different price tag depending on which council you live in.
The opposition has now pledged to scrap the mandate entirely if elected in November, while the Greens want to keep the four bin system but let councils localise it. Whether your household gets a fourth bin, and who pays for it, is currently an election issue rather than a given.
Why we didn't wait for a bin
This is the bit that gets missed in most recycling coverage. "Recyclable" only works if the sorting, collection and processing infrastructure exists, is funded, and is actually running in your postcode. Right now in Victoria, that infrastructure is being negotiated council by council, budget by budget, election by election.
We went home compostable instead, because it doesn't ask you to wait for your council to sort out a fourth bin. No mandate, no rollout deadline, no line item. It goes in your own compost or council green bin and it's gone, no purple lid required. We've written before about why we chose home compostable over recyclable packaging and what compostable, recyclable and biodegradable actually mean, if you want the full rundown.
Bins are political. Compost bins don't need an election promise.