- Cotton buds.
- Hair care products.
- Mix with kitty litter, soil, or grass clippings to solidify, then put them in your red lid bin. Otherwise, pour liquids onto newspaper and cover with absorbent material. Place empty hair product containers and paint tins with minimal residue in your recycling bin (yellow lid).
- Medicines.
- Take unwanted or expired medicines to participating pharmacies for safe disposal.
- Wet wipes.
Sustainable Living
Household hazardous waste storage and disposal
Learn how to safely store and dispose of household hazardous waste in Brisbane. Discover guidelines for managing items like chemicals, batteries, and more.
Household hazardous waste includes items that are corrosive, flammable, explosive, toxic or poisonous. These are everyday household items such as bleach, garden and pool chemicals and cleaning solvents. Learn how you can safely store and dispose of hazardous household waste in Brisbane.
Storing household hazardous waste
You must take care with the storage of chemicals and other household hazardous waste items to make sure you do not:
- injure or poison someone if they drink, inhale or come into contact with the hazardous waste item
- endanger yourself and/or your property if chemicals ignite, explode, release toxic fumes or if there is a fire
- receive a fine for damaging the environment if chemicals leak while being stored or handled.
Safe disposal of household hazardous waste
Do not put household hazardous waste in your general waste or recycling bin unless Council says you can.
Household hazardous waste can cause fires in bins and trucks, creating safety risks for everyone and the environment.
Use the methods below or go to a Brisbane City Council drop-off day to dispose of hazardous waste.
Where to dispose of potentially hazardous household waste
Household general waste bin
You can place the following items in your household general waste bin (red lid).
- Cooking oil.
- Floor care products.
- Metal polish with solvent.
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs or fluorescent tube (must be wrapped tightly in newspaper or put in the original box) .
- Fibreglass resins.
- Ink cartridges (only if empty).
- Where possible recycle ink cartridges via the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark recycling program. Cartridges contain various materials like plastic, metal, foam, ink, and toner. Using a collection location helps prevent these materials from ending up in a landfill. Locate your nearest Cartridges 4 Planet Ark collection location/box.
- Paints and mediums (but only small, dried quantities).
- Mix with kitty litter, soil, or grass clippings to solidify, then put them in your red lid bin. Otherwise, pour liquids onto newspaper and cover with absorbent material. Place empty hair product containers and paint tins with minimal residue in your recycling bin (yellow lid).
- Recycle the batteries from smoke alarms at a B-cycle drop-off point or Council’s resource recovery centres. Dispose of the smoke alarm case in your kerbside general waste bin (red lid).
Resource recovery centres (outside of scheduled free drop-off days)
You can take the following items to the Council's resource recovery centres outside scheduled free drop-off days.
- Car batteries (lead acid type only).
- Motor, sump and gear oil.
- Batteries.
- Find more B-cycle drop-off points.
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- Empty gas bottles (maximum of six bottles of up to nine kilograms).
- Paints and mediums (maximum of 20 litres per container and 100 litres per customer per visit).
- Smoke alarms – Photoelectric type with non-removable battery (maximum of 10).
- Vapes (household quantities only).
Sewer (via toilet or sink)
You can dispose of the following materials via your household sewer (through toilets or sinks).
Mix chemicals with water before placing in sewer.
- Aftershaves, perfumes, other locations.
- Bathroom cleaners and disinfectants.
- Hair care products.
- Medicines (small quantities only).
- Dispose of small quantities of medicines in the sewer, but return larger amounts to your local pharmacy.
- Drain cleaner/disinfectant.
- Window and ammonia-based cleaners.
- Windshield washer solution.
Free household hazardous waste drop-off days
Brisbane City Council provides free hazardous waste drop-off days at its four resource recovery centres throughout the year.
- All items for household hazardous waste disposal must remain in their original containers and not be mixed.
- The limit is 20 litres per customer per visit for most chemicals or products. You can drop off up to 100 litres of paint and engine oil, but each container must be 20 litres or less.
The following items are accepted at these free drop-off days.
Kitchen
- Insect sprays
- Floor care products
- Metal polish with solvent.
Garage
- Antifreeze
- Car batteries
- Brake fluid
- Motor, sump and gear oil
- Petrol and marine fuel.
Garden
- Fungicide/insecticide
- Herbicides and weed killers.
Other
- Batteries (household and lead acid batteries)
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs
- Dry cleaning solvents
- Electronic waste
- Fibreglass resins
- Fire extinguishers
- Fluorescent light bulbs and tubes
- Gas bottles (must be empty, a maximum of six bottles of up to nine kilograms)
- Ink cartridges
- Where possible recycle ink cartridges via the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark recycling program. Cartridges contain various materials like plastic, metal, foam, ink, and toner. Using a collection location helps prevent these materials from ending up in a landfill. Locate your nearest Cartridges 4 Planet Ark collection location/box
- Paints and mediums (maximum of 20 litres per container and 100 litres per customer)
- Photographic chemicals
- Smoke detectors
- Smoke alarms – Photoelectric type with non-removable battery (maximum of 10)
- Swimming pool chemicals
- Vapes (household quantities only).
What to do if you break a compact fluorescent light bulb or tube
Compact fluorescent light bulbs and tubes (CFL) contain small amounts of mercury. We consider mercury-containing products to be household hazardous waste.
If you break a CFL:
- turn off ceiling fans and air conditioning units
- put on a dust mask and use a utensil to collect broken glass and powder and put them in a plastic bag
- wipe the area with a damp paper towel and put the paper towel in the plastic bag and seal it
- dispose of the sealed plastic bag in your general waste bin
- avoid leaving any bulb fragments or clean up materials indoors
- ventilate the room.
Do not use a vacuum to clean up as this can disperse the mercury.
More information
For more information about household hazardous waste, contact Council.
For trade waste enquiries, contact Urban Utilities.