Hard Rubbish Collection in Melbourne: A Suburb by Suburb Guide for 2026

Hard rubbish collection in Melbourne: council guide by North Removals

Author <span style="color:#172937;">| </span>Joaquin Trapero

Author | Joaquin Trapero

Joaquin Trapero, with two decades of expertise in the removal industry, is the owner of North Removals, bringing unparalleled knowledge and proficiency to every relocation.

Hard rubbish is the clean out most Melbourne households rely on: the old mattress, the dead fridge, the couch that will not survive another move. Hard rubbish collection in Melbourne has no single rule, because each of the 31 metro councils runs its own service. Find yours in seconds:

That is why the same question, “when is my hard rubbish collection?”, has 31 different answers across the city. We move families in and out of these suburbs every week, so we built the lookup above to cut through it.

Below is the full council by council detail, plus what to do when a booked collection cannot come fast enough. If you are clearing a whole property, our guide on getting rid of old furniture and the team behind removalists in Melbourne can take the overflow the council will not.

Quick answer

Most of metro Melbourne no longer has a fixed hard rubbish day. Of the 31 metro councils, 27 run a booked, on demand service where you choose your own collection date online, and 4 still collect on scheduled dates by area. Free allowances range from 1 to 5 collections a year and size limits from 1 to 5 cubic metres.

To get yours, find your council in the lookup above, check your free allowance and size limit, then book on the council page or wait for your scheduled week.

How hard rubbish collection works in Melbourne

Hard rubbish, or hard waste, is household items too big for your bins: furniture, mattresses, whitegoods and scrap metal. In Victoria there is no state wide service. Your local council owns the rules, sets your free allowance and decides how you get a collection.

It is not universal either. The Victorian Auditor-General found that in 2019 to 2020 only 43 of Victoria’s 79 councils ran a hard waste service at all, and 31 of those are the metro councils covered here.

The big shift over the past five years is the move from scheduled collections to what councils call an at-call service. Brimbank, Merri-bek and Whitehorse have all dropped the old “your street, this week” model in favour of an at-call collection you book yourself.

metro Melbourne councils, each setting its own hard rubbish rules

book on demand only, so you choose your own collection date

still run scheduled or area based collection dates

1 to 5

free collections a year, depending on your council

This matters for planning. On an at-call service you can line a collection up with your move date. If you are in one of the few areas still on scheduled dates, you may wait months for the window, which is often why people clearing a house call a removalist instead. If you are moving removalists across Victoria and cannot wait for a council date, booked mattress removal and same day pickups fill the gap.

Hard rubbish collection by council in Melbourne

Here is every metro Melbourne council, grouped by region, with how its service works, your free allowance, the size limit and the cost of any extra collection. Council names link straight to the official hard waste page. Not sure how much you have? Our volume calculator gives you a cubic metre estimate in a minute.

The spread is wide. Free allowances run from a single collection a year in the inner city up to five voucher backed collections in the outer north, and paid extra collections range from about $83 to $216. If you live on a border suburb like Footscray or Brunswick, check which council your street sits in, because the rules can change on the other side of the road.

Inner Melbourne: hard rubbish in Melbourne, Port Phillip, Stonnington and Yarra

Inner Melbourne is the tightest for volume. City of Melbourne allows just 1 cubic metre once a year across Kensington, Carlton and Docklands, while Port Phillip gives houses four bookings covering St Kilda and Albert Park.

Council	How it works	Free a year	Size limit	Extra collection
City of Melbourne	Booked (at call)	1 a year	1 m³	Not published
City of Port Phillip	Booked (at call)	4 a year (houses)	2 m³	Within allowance
City of Stonnington	Booked + scheduled (Spring and autumn)	2 a year	Up to 5 m³	$166.10
Yarra City Council	Booked (at call)	2 a year	2 m³	Not available

Council names link to the official hard waste page. Free allowances, size limits and extra collection prices verified from each council in July 2026 and can change: always confirm on the council page. A few councils cap by item or voucher rather than by volume.

Northern suburbs: hard waste in Merri-bek, Darebin, Banyule, Hume, Nillumbik and Whittlesea

The north runs entirely on at-call bookings. Hume hands out five vouchers a year across Craigieburn and Broadmeadows, while Darebin holds Preston, Reservoir and Northcote to a single 2 cubic metre collection.

Council	How it works	Free a year	Size limit	Extra collection
Banyule City Council	Booked (at call)	2 a year	1 m³	Not available
Darebin City Council	Booked (at call)	1 a year	2 m³	From $82.30
Hume City Council	Booked (at call)	5 vouchers a year	Up to 4 m³	Not available
Merri-bek City Council	Booked (at call)	Up to 2 a year	2 m³ a year total	From $100
Nillumbik Shire Council	Booked (at call)	1 a year	2 m³	Paid, ask council
City of Whittlesea	Booked (at call)	2 a year	Up to 4 items	Not available