We have a rubbish reputation, but a circular city is still in reach

The good news? Victoria’s container deposit scheme has taken off – 1.86 billion drink containers returned in under two years, with another 20 million added each week since.

The not-so-good news? Despite our city’s many accolades over the years, we aren’t receiving any prizes for waste management. Instead, when it comes to diverting waste from landfill, we’ve picked up the wooden – or perhaps plastic – spoon instead.

According to the latest data, the City of Melbourne’s waste diversion rate sits around 25 per cent – the lowest in metropolitan Melbourne. Compare that to councils like Banyule (61 per cent) and Whitehorse (58 per cent), and the gap is clear.

Postcode 3000 presents challenges few councils face. Almost 90 per cent of residents live in multi-unit dwellings, with around 430 high-rise and 900 low-rise buildings packed into laneways and towers. Most are renters, many speak languages other than English, and very few buildings were designed with space for proper recycling systems.

There’s a clear problem with infrastructure, such as the single chutes of many apartment towers, which discourage waste sorting. However, as many of you will attest after having found your recycling skip full of IKEA furniture, the issue has had as much to do with educating residents.

A 2025 audit of 74 high-rise buildings revealed sobering results: around two-thirds of what ends up in general waste bins could have been recycled, and a third of items in the recycling bin don’t belong there. The most commonly mismanaged materials? Food waste, textiles, e-waste, and plastic.

Put simply: Melbourne has a high-density waste problem with infrastructure that wasn’t built for circularity.

Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic) offers a blueprint for what’s possible when you combine financial incentives, smart infrastructure, and strong messaging.

Since its launch in late 2023:

• 1.86 billion containers have been returned
• Across 12 million transactions, with an average return of 151 containers
• More than 644 refund points now operate across the state – including reverse vending machines in Federation Square and Queen St

The impact is real. According to audits, the number of bottles and cans picked up during clean-ups has halved since the scheme began – from 48,000 containers in 2023 to just 17,300 in 2024.

It works because it’s simple, rewarding, and visible. That’s a formula we need to apply to the rest of our waste streams.

While suburban households have moved to a four-bin system (including glass and food organics), most inner-city apartments are still stuck with just one or two shared bins. Many buildings lack space for new bins while residents lack incentives to change habits.

The City of Melbourne is piloting alternatives. Ten buildings are trialling food dehydrators that convert scraps into fertiliser – diverting 49 tonnes of food waste and saving 95 tonnes of CO2 so far. These are promising signs, but the scale remains limited.

Glass poses a similar issue. The city is exploring options for purple-lid glass bins, but in high-rise buildings where space is tight, the CDS may become a de facto solution for glass if wine and spirits bottles are added in future scheme expansions.

The challenges are as human as they are logistical:

• Each building is different – waste rooms, storage space, and resident needs
• Many renters don’t see sorting waste as their responsibility
• Owners’ corporations are already stretched thin with other tasks
• And confusion reigns: old signage, unclear rules, and language barriers

Success depends on building-level champions – residents, managers or cleaners who are willing to help introduce new systems, educate neighbours, and adapt infrastructure.

Other cities are showing how this can work in high rises. Toronto has retrofitted bin chutes and used clear bags to track performance. San Francisco enforces food waste separation with fines but pairs it with visible support and strong messaging.

Under the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021, all Victorian households must have food and glass recycling by mid-2027. The City of Melbourne is auditing all high-rise waste rooms to prepare for this change, and offering rebates for home composting systems tailored to apartment dwellers.

But the government can’t solve this alone. New services need community participation. That might mean updating a sign, hosting a recycling talk, or just being your building’s “Waste Champion”. Melbourne’s recycling future will be decided building by building, laneway by laneway.

The success of the CDS shows what’s possible. People respond to smart design, easy access, and meaningful incentives. Now we need to bring the same principles to organic waste, textiles, batteries, e-waste, and more.

Every building that gets it right starts with someone who asks, “Could we do this better?”

You don’t have to do it all. Just start with what you can control: keep sorting your waste, cash in at the CDS, take batteries to your library drop-off, or talk to your body corporate about getting composting on the agenda.

We’ve already returned nearly two billion bottles. Imagine what we could do if we brought the same focus to food scraps, batteries and soft plastics – right here, in your building.

Please refer to residents3000.org.au and follow us on social media for details of our Forum 3000 events at 6pm on the first Thursday of every month at the Kelvin Club. •