Bins & Collections

Bin Collection Delays

Published: 19 September 2025

Townsville City Council wishes to advise of the ongoing delays to residential recycling bin collections. We understand waste and recycling services are highly valued in our community, and we are committed to maintaining this essential service despite several ongoing challenges.

Delays began earlier this year due to severe weather events, followed by technical issues with some of our trucks.

Council acknowledges that unions committed to suspending prolonged industrial action approximately six weeks ago, which had also been impacting waste services.

Services continue to experience delays due to a shortage of available drivers. Household recycling collections are currently running around three days behind schedule. Rest assured, teams are working hard to get collections back on track, including working overtime on weekdays and weekends.

We thank the community for their patience as we work to restore full-service capacity.

What residents should do

Service-wide delays (street or suburb-wide)

  • Leave bins out: If your bin is not collected on the usual day, please leave it on the kerbside until it is collected.
  • You do not need to call Council in these cases – crews are working through suburbs as quickly as possible.

Individual missed bins (by exception only)

Please only contact Council if:

  • Your bin has remained uncollected for more than four (4) days, or
  • Your neighbours’ bins have been collected but yours has not.

In these cases, bins are often not collected because they were not presented, too heavy, too full and overflowing, too close to objects for safe collection, or contaminated. To avoid this, please:

  • Place bins out before 6am on collection day (or the night before).
  • Position bins facing the road, wheels closest to your property.
  • Keep bins 0.5 metres apart and at least 1 metre away from parked cars, trees, poles or other obstructions.
  • Do not overload bins (max weight 50kg), lids must close flat.
  • Ensure the correct waste is in each bin; contaminated bins cannot be serviced.

Paluma Residents – Temporary Bin Day Change

Updated: 5 March 2025

Weekly bin collections will now be on Saturdays instead of Mondays until further notice. This change is in place until Mt Spec Road is fixed.

Thank you for your cooperation and patience.

Waste collection is one of our community’s most valued services with more than 6.5 million bin collections annually.

Red waste and yellow recycling binFind out your bin collection days for your waste and recycling, and how to order a new bin, report a damaged bin or report a missed collection.

You can also find more about:

Tips for a Top Bin Collection

Ensure you:

  • Bins must be placed 0.5 metres apart.
  • Place your bin out before 6am on your collection day. Too early? You can put them out the night before!
  • Place your bin facing the road, with the wheels closest to your property.
  • Do not overload your bin (max weight 50kg) or our trucks can’t lift it!
  • Have the bin lid closed flat, do not overfill.
  • Place bins as close to kerbside as possible and not on the road.
  • Place your bins more than 1m away from objects including parked cars, under trees, power poles and other similar obstructions. Obstructed bins cannot be collected.
  • Place the correct waste in each bin, if drivers identify contamination, bins cannot be serviced.
  • Bag any Green waste before placing in bin (such as grass clippings or leaf matter).
  • Place Green waste in the waste bin, it is not a recyclable material.
  • Avoid compacting waste into the bin, which could result in the bin being half emptied.

Your Bin Collection Days