Custom waste guide
Landscaping waste and skip bin planner
Build a skip plan from the materials you actually have. This guide recommends a waste type and skip size. It does not calculate prices.
Waste type recommendation
Skip size recommendation
Material compatibility checks
No pricing in this guide
Your skip plan
Your recommended selections
You selected: —
Why this waste type?
What can go in the bin?
What must stay out?
What happens next?
Enter your delivery postcode or suburb. We’ll preload the waste type on the homepage and keep this recommended size ready. You’ll still choose the Bin Type there; if it supports this size, we’ll apply it automatically.
The direct answer
A 3m³ green waste skip bin handles a seasonal garden clean-up. A 6m³ is the size for a full garden overhaul, hedge removal or a large property.
Garden waste is the job where people most often under-book, because branches and prunings do not compress. A pile that looks like half a trailer becomes a full cubic metre the moment it goes in a bin unbroken. Cut long branches down before loading and you will fit roughly a third more in the same bin.
What goes in a green waste bin
- Branches, prunings and hedge clippings
- Leaves, grass clippings and weeds
- Untreated timber and small logs
- Palm fronds and bark
- Plants, shrubs and hedging
- Flowers, garden beds and mulch
What does NOT go in a green waste bin
This is the part that catches people, and it is not about what is banned — it is about what is a different category:
- Soil, and turf with soil still attached — that is excavation waste or mixed
waste with soil
- Treated, painted or laminated timber — sleepers, decking, fence palings and
posts are not green waste
- Rocks, gravel and pavers — mixed rubble or excavation waste
- Pots, plastic, hose and garden tools — general waste
- Large tree trunks and stumps — usually need a special arrangement, ask first
A bin booked as green waste and filled with soil and old sleepers is not a green waste load. It gets re-categorised, and the price moves.
What size, and what it costs
| Job | Size | Typical price | Median | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small yard tidy, one hedge, seasonal prune | 2m³ | $228–$398 | $305 | $177–$858 |
| Seasonal garden clean-up | 3m³ | $325–$446 | $346 | $233–$916 |
| Garden overhaul, hedge removal, large block | 6m³ | $588–$705 | $647 | $446–$1,117 |
| Full landscaping strip-out | 8m³ | $758–$997 | $863 | $717–$1,487 |
Live prices from our booking engine, 30 August 2026, general waste, 7-day hire, including delivery, collection, tipping and GST.
Green waste pricing specifically, live-probed at 4m³ across 33 postcodes on 30 August 2026: median $464, range $293–$799.
Does booking green waste save you money? Usually not — book it because it is true
This is worth saying plainly, because the assumption runs the other way.
Across 32 postcodes where both priced, green waste at 4m³ came out dearer than general waste in 14, cheaper in 11, and identical in 7 — a median difference of $0. In one postcode green waste was $293 against $582 for mixed waste with soil, a 99% spread. In others there was no category pricing at all.
Book green waste because that is what is in the bin, not as a way to save. Where a saving exists it is real and local; where it does not, booking green waste for a load that is half soil creates a contamination problem for no gain.
The soil trap
The single most common error on this job: turf, garden bed soil and old potting mix are not green waste.
A 4m³ of prunings and a 4m³ of soil are the same volume and a different category. Across our live probe, mixed waste with soil ran a median $126 above general waste at 4m³ and was never once cheaper in the 26 postcodes where both priced. Excavation waste ran a median $76 above.
If you are lifting a lawn, digging beds or removing a raised garden, that is a soil job and it needs a soil category — see the soil and dirt answer. If you have both, either split them into two loads or book the soil category for the whole bin.
What is NOT allowed — in any bin
- Asbestos, fibro and fibreglass
- Chemicals, liquids, oils, fuels — **including weedkiller, pesticide and fuel from
the mower**, which is exactly where garden jobs go wrong
- Paints and solvents
- Gas bottles and aerosols
- Batteries
- Clinical or medical waste
If prohibited items are found after collection, contamination and disposal fees are charged and the load may be rejected.
Practical notes
- Cut it down before it goes in. Long branches loaded whole waste a third of
the bin. This is the cheapest size upgrade available to you.
- Take the longer hire. 3, 5 and 7 days were the same price in 60% of the 60
postcodes tested on 30 August 2026. Garden work is weather-dependent, and a 7-day window that costs nothing extra is worth taking.
- We arrange the bin; you load it. We do not do manual removal, loading,
carrying or green waste collection by hand.
- Check your council first. Many Australian councils offer a free annual green
waste or hard rubbish collection, often defined as a set number of cubic metres or "one trailer load". If your job fits inside that, use it — we would rather tell you that than sell you a bin you did not need.