What Counts as Green Waste?
Green waste (garden organics) means plant material only:
- Branches and pruned limbs — generally up to about 150–200mm diameter; anything thicker, ask first
- Palm fronds — the eternal Central Queensland problem; they're bulky, spiky and endless
- Lawn clippings, weeds and garden bed clear-outs
- Hedge and shrub trimmings, vines and creepers
- Leaves, bark and small stumps (large stumps and root balls are heavy and soil-laden — check before loading)
- Whole small shrubs and trees, cut to fit below the bin rim
The "only" matters. A green waste load is cheap to dispose of because it goes for mulching and composting rather than landfill — but one load of contamination changes that. Keep out:
- Soil and turf — a few root-ball crumbs are unavoidable, but shovelled dirt makes the load a soil bin at a different rate and weight profile
- Treated timber, fencing and lattice — treated pine can't be mulched; it's construction waste
- Rocks, pavers and edging — heavy waste
- Plastic pots, hoses, bags and general junk — that's a general waste load
- The universal exclusions: no chemicals (including garden sprays and pool chemicals), no asbestos — old fence sheeting matters here, see what can't go in a skip
If your cleanup is genuinely mixed — half garden, half junk — book it as general waste and tell us. That's cheaper than a contaminated green load being reclassified.
Sizing a Green Waste Bin
Green waste is bulky but light, so volume is the limit, never weight — and it compresses well. Snap branches down, stack fronds flat and you'll fit far more than a loose pile suggests.
| Job | Size |
|---|---|
| Weekend pruning, hedge trim, a few fronds | 2m³ |
| Solid garden tidy, several shrubs out | 3m³ |
| Overgrown yard reclaim, small tree down | 4m³ |
| Full garden overhaul or post-storm cleanup | 6m³ |
| Acreage clear, multiple trees, big landscaping strip-out | 8m³+ |
The pile-on-the-lawn test: a heap roughly 2m across and a metre high is about 2m³ once compacted. Most "the yard got away from us" jobs in Kirkwood, Glen Eden or Calliope acreage land at 4–6m³. When unsure, size up — regrowth waits for no one, and a full bin with half a pile left is the worst outcome. More sizing help on the sizes guide.
Storm Season Cleanups
Central Queensland summers deliver. When a big blow comes through the Gladstone region, yards fill with snapped branches, shredded fronds and downed limbs overnight — and everyone wants a bin at once. Two practical tips from experience: book as early as you can after (or before) a storm event, and if a tree has come down near powerlines or over a structure, that's an arborist-and-Ergon job first, bin second. For fencing debris mixed with vegetation, book general or construction waste rather than green.
Where the Green Waste Goes
Clean green waste collected in the region is delivered to licensed facilities — Benaraby Regional Landfill and area transfer stations accept green waste separately from general refuse, and Gladstone Regional Council processes garden organics for mulching rather than burying it. That's why the clean-load rule exists, and why green waste bins cost less than general waste: your hedge trimmings become mulch, not landfill.
Keeping the load clean is the one thing that protects that lower price. Green waste bins are checked at the facility, and if a load is mixed with plastic pots, bags, treated timber or building rubble it gets reclassified as general waste at the higher rate — so leave the non-garden material out and load the bin with plant matter only.