What happens to my waste?
People living in Cairns and the surrounding regions know “there’s no place like our place”, and keeping it the way it is important to all of us. One way to look after our region is to look after our waste because the less waste we send to landfill the cleaner and greener our environment remains. Landfill refers to the waste we put in the ground, and when we put rubbish into landfill, polluting greenhouse gases (methane) are released. This happens when food and green waste rots under mountains of other rubbish. This puts more energy into our atmosphere and this is starting to affect our climate. In Cairns, our landfill is capped and due to our environmentally sensitive location no more landfill is permitted so we’ve had to find more effective ways to deal with our waste, beyond relying on landfill.
The contents of over 65,000 kerbside yellow lid recycling bins are collected from the Cairns region and delivered to the Materials Recovery Facility in Portsmith. Items are then transported to specialised recycling facilities for processing into new materials.
Did you know that Cairns households place 90% correct items in recycling bins, visit our Recycle Right page to learn ‘what belongs in what’ bin.
Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)
Located in Portsmith, the Cairns 'MRF' is a state of the art facility that processes commingled recyclable materials, from yellow lid bins across the region. It uses a combination of hand sorting, specialised screening equipment and optical sorting to remove waste then sort and bale paper, cardboard, plastic bottles & containers ready for transportation for further reprocessing by manufacturers in South East Queensland. The Facility also incorporates a glass crushing plant which creates a sand substitute for use in local construction projects from glass bottles & jars. To learn more about Council's recycled glass product, download the Crushed Glass Factsheet ( PDF, 1.44 MB ).
The MRF is also the home of a dedicated Resource Recovery Education room known as the Rediscovery Centre – offering a bird’s-eye view of the processing plant, which is complemented by the use of cameras inside the machinery to see up-close how the facility works. Visit our Waste Education page for bookings and more information.
This time-lapse video shows the new facility, from construction to full operation.
The contents of over 70,000 kerbside red and green lid waste bins are collected from the Cairns region and delivered to the Advanced Resource Recovery Facility (ARRF) for sorting & processing. A more sustainable alternative to traditional waste disposal methods, the ARRF separates waste (residuals) while producing compost material for use in agriculture from our food scraps and small garden waste.
Did you know that over 18% of items placed in waste bins should have been placed in yellow lid recycling bins? Recycling is not able to be recovered when placed in waste. Visit our Recycle Right page to confirm what belongs in the yellow lid bin and let's keep recycling out of the waste bin.
Advanced Resource Recovery Facility (ARRF)
Located in Portsmith and operated under contract by SUEZ Cairns, the Mechanical Biological Treatment Facility (MBT) known as the ARRF uses a combination of mechanical separation of waste to remove contamination along with an enclosed biological composting system to produce compost.
View the video below to learn more about how the ARRF works. Council also offers regional schools and community groups tours of its Resource Recovery Facilities via the Waste Education program. View Council's Waste Education Page for further information.
Further details about the Advanced Resource Recovery Facility. Download a pdf version of this image ( PDF, 0.58 MB ).
More than just a stepping stone in the journey of waste, transfer stations play a vital role in assisting in the reduction of waste to landfill, by providing residents of the Cairns region with 4 facilities where they can drop off recyclables, reusable materials and general waste for processing.
Portsmith, Smithfield, Gordonvale and Babinda Transfer Stations process over 40,000 tonnes of self-hauled material annually, recovering as much as 72% of material for recycling recovery and reuse.
Items taken to transfer stations by residents include: oils, paints (spray paint cans), gas bottles, fire extinguishers, tyres, medical waste, batteries, smoke detectors, green waste, general household waste and unused household furnishings. Items that are non-recyclable are processed in the Advanced Resource Recovery Facility (ARRF) and are sent to landfill.
Did you know that many common household items can be dropped off for free at Council’s transfer Stations? Visit the Free Waste Drop off or Council’s Waste Transfer Stations for further information.
Just because certain items can’t be recycled in Council recycling bins (or at transfer stations) doesn’t mean they need to end up in landfill. To make sure we are all taking greater responsibility for our waste at home or work, many common hard to recycle household waste items can actually be re-processed via specialist recycling programs available to residents here in the Cairns region.
To take advantage of these programs may require some extra effort on our behalf, but with more of us taking these small actions each day we are sure to have a big impact on protecting the environment.
Specialist recycling opportunities for Cairns residents:
| Item | Specialist Recycler | Actions to take |
|---|---|---|
| Soft plastics | Redcycle | The REDcycle program has temporarily paused. REDcycle regrettably has temporarily paused its soft plastics collection program, effective as of 9 November 2022. REDcycle and its partners are committed to having the program back up and running as soon as possible. For further information visit Redcycle's homepage. |
| Nespresso Coffee Pods | Nespresso and Terracycle | Nespresso offer recycling options for their pods, simply add a popostage-paidecycling satchel to your next coffee order. Able to hold 180 standard pods, this equates to just over two cents per pod to ensure that these waste items are recycled. View the recycling pod satchel option on Nespresso's website. For non-nespresso recycling options view Terracycle's postage paid zero waste boxes. |
| Beauty products | Terracycle | Visit Terracycle's website to purchase a postage paid beauty products zero waste box, setup your own community group/work collection point. |
| Household batteries | Council transfer Stations and libraries, battery world | Visit Smithfield, Portsmith, Gordonvale, Babinda transfer stations, (view Council transfer station information, address and opening hours), Visit Cairns Libraries Branches for household battery drop off - (view Cairns Libraries information, address and opening hours) |
| Bottle tops and caps | Terracycle | Visit Terracycle's website to purchase a postage paid bottle tops zero waste box, setup your own community group/work collection point. |
| Printer cartridges | Planet Ark | Drop off your used or empty laser and inkjet cartridges at all Officeworks stores and participating Australia Post, Cartridge World, Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, JB Hi-Fi, Office National and Office Products Depot outlets. Visit Planet Ark's website for further details. |
| Cassette, CD, DVD discs | Terracycle | Visit Terracycle's website to purchase a postage paid media storage zero waste box, setup your own community group/work collection point. |
| Cigarette waste | Terracycle | Visit Terracycle's website to purchase a postage paid media storage zero waste box, setup your own community group/work collection point. |
| Drums - Agricultural and veterinary chemical | Agsafe | DrumMUSTER collects eligible non-returnable metal or plastic containers above one litre/kilogram and up to 205 litre/ kilogram in declared content in the packaging of crop production and animal health products used for: agricultural and livestock production. Visit Drummusters website for further information about the program. |
| Fabrics, clothing | Charities and Redcycle | Important note: Clothes in good condition should be donated to local charities, Lifeline, Salavation Army, St Vinnies stores in Cairns. Fabrics/Clothes can be recycled through Terracycle's Farbics Zero Waste Box. |
| Mobile phones andaccessories | Cairns Phone outlets, Council Transfer Stations | Recycle at your local Optus, Telstra, Vodafone and Officeworks stores, search for your nearest Mobile Muster drop off locations in Cairns or take for free to Portsmith, Smithfield, Gordonvale and Babinda Transfer Stations. |
| Shoes - Sport and Activewear | Treadlightly Recycling Program | If in poor condition shoes can be disposed of in your waste bin. If in good condition consider donation through local charities. Sports & Active footwear (rubber sole shoes only) can also be recycled through participating local Retailers (as part of the 'Treadlightly recycling program'). Currently participating stores include Athlete’s Foot Cairns, Converse Cairns, Rebel Cairns. |
| X-rays | Eco-cycle | Cairns residents are able to post x-ray films to Eco-cycle located in Hemant, Brisbane, at the address: 1/1204 Lytton Road, Hemmant, QLD 4174. For further information about x-ray recycling visit Eco-cycle's website. |
*The list above is a snapshot of the common items available for re-processing. Further items (and associated options) are regularly added to the list for reprocessing 'hard to recycle items' in Australia. Be sure to visit Planet Ark's Recycling Near You or Terracycle's websites for the latest updates.
Virtual tours:
Find out more about what happens to waste and recyclable material in the Cairns region by completing a virtual walk through tour of Council's Resource Recovery Facilities.
The virtual tours are optimised for use in Google Chrome, some features and functionality may not be available in other browsers.
How to use Council's virtual tours:
- Use the bottom left navigation bar to change the viewing angle of the site
- Floor plan allows you to click anywhere in the site
- Explore the site, swiping up, down, left and right
- For desktop or laptop computers: The keypad works best (left, right, bottom and top arrow keys) a mouse also always navigation
- For ipad or tablet, swipe, drag and tap your screen on each scan
- Click on the scans (white circles) to move through the site. If you cannot see a scan, you may not be able to access that location, alternatively, click ahead of the camera to move to a different location
- Hover over the blue icons to view information about the site
Please note for some PC viewers of this virtual tour the menu on the left hand side of the screen will appear blank, simply refresh the page (F5 on your keyboard) for it to appear correctly.
Please note for some PC viewers of this virtual tour the menu on the left hand side of the screen will appear blank, simply refresh the page (F5 on your keyboard) for it to appear correctly.
Last Updated: 5 March 2024
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