Where do the bins go?

Short version: a bin lives in one of three places, and each has its own rule. Between collections it stays inside your lot, or on the part of common property the owners corporation has authorised for bins. On bin night it goes to the collection area the owners corporation designates — under the standard by-law, no more than 12 hours before collection. Once it has been emptied, it comes back promptly. Your council then adds its own rules for the kerb.

Those are the defaults. Your scheme may have its own waste by-law, and which by-laws apply at all depends on when the scheme was registered — so check yours before relying on the 12-hour figure.

What you need in front of you

• Your by-laws, consolidated. Find the garbage or waste by-law. It says where bins live, where they go for collection and how long before collection they can go out.
• The designated collection area. The by-laws make the owners corporation designate it. If nobody ever has, that — not the residents — is the first thing to fix.
• Your council’s collection rules. Collection day and time, and how bins must sit at the kerb. These differ between councils and sit on top of the by-laws.
• Whether your bins are individual or shared. Individual bins are each owner’s job to move. Shared bins on common property are the owners corporation’s to arrange unless a by-law says otherwise.

If bins keep being left out: step by step

1. Check which by-law applies and what it actually says. Pre-1996 schemes still carry an older garbage by-law; newer schemes have whatever was adopted at registration or changed since. The 12-hour limit and the “designated area” wording come from these, so quote the one that binds you.
2. Make the rules visible. Designate the storage and collection areas clearly, and put up signs. The model waste by-law lets the owners corporation give directions by posting signs on common property that are consistent with the council’s requirements, or by written notice.
3. Start with a friendly reminder. Most bin problems are a new tenant who does not know the collection day. A note under the door costs nothing and solves the majority of cases before anything formal is needed.
4. Keep a record. Dates, photos, which lot. If it ever reaches the Tribunal, “the bins are always out” is an opinion; six dated photographs are evidence.
5. Remember tenants are bound too. By-laws bind tenants and other occupiers, not only owners, so the notice can go to whoever is actually living there — with a copy to the owner.
6. Issue a notice to comply. A formal notice in the approved form, with a copy of the by-law attached. It can only be issued after a resolution of the strata committee or a general meeting approving it — a committee member cannot send one on their own say-so.
7. Apply to NCAT if it continues. If the by-law is breached again after the notice, the Tribunal can order a penalty of up to 10 penalty units, rising to 20 for a repeat breach within 12 months of an earlier penalty. Apply within 12 months of giving the notice. The owners corporation cannot fine anyone itself.

Shared bins: who wheels them out?

Where the bins are shared and stored on common property, getting them to the kerb is the owners corporation’s job unless your by-laws say otherwise. The usual options are a cleaner or a bin-carting contractor paid from the administrative fund, or — where your council offers it — a wheel-out, wheel-back service, in which the council’s contractor takes the bins from the storage area to the kerb and back. Some councils provide it for eligible unit blocks at no extra charge.

At the kerb: your council’s rules

The by-laws get the bin to the collection area; the council decides how it must sit on the street, and those rules vary. As one example, Georges River Council asks unit developments to put bins out no earlier than 12 hours before collection and bring them in within 12 hours after, in a single row with lids closed and facing the street, about 30 centimetres apart, at least a metre from parked cars, poles and trees, and three metres clear of overhead wires. Bins that do not meet the rules may simply not be collected. Check your own council’s page — and keep a clear path along the footpath for prams and wheelchairs.

City of Ryde puts it more simply on its 2026 collection calendar: bins go out the night before collection day, lids closed, at least 30 centimetres apart, and away from large objects and parked cars — its diagram shows a metre of clearance and three metres below overhead wires. Ryde also warns that a bin facing the wrong way, out of reach of the truck’s side arm, or blocked by a parked car may not be emptied. Residents who cannot move their bins because of age, disability or ill health, and have no one to help, can apply for Ryde’s free assisted bin collection service; ask council whether it applies to your block.

Where the council’s timing and your by-law differ — “the night before” against “no more than 12 hours before” — you have to satisfy both. For an early-morning truck they usually agree; for a mid-morning one, the by-law’s 12 hours is the tighter limit.

Whose frontage? Your own, not next door’s

Bins go out at the kerb in front of your own property, not the neighbour’s. This is a council rule rather than a strata by-law or a statewide law, but councils put it consistently: the collection point is normally along your property boundary, at the kerb in front of the dwelling, and for unit developments Inner West Council’s guidelines require the collection point to sit next to the property’s own boundary without impeding the neighbouring property’s boundary. After collection, bins go back inside your property boundary.

For a strata scheme, “your property” is the whole strata parcel, not your individual lot — so the scheme’s bins belong on the scheme’s own frontage, and so should the collection area the owners corporation designates. One exception: council chooses the collection point. On a battle-axe block, a narrow frontage or a street the trucks cannot reach, council may nominate somewhere else, and then council’s spot is the right one. If bins on the wrong frontage keep causing friction, ask council’s waste team to confirm the collection point for each property; their answer settles it.

The long version — the by-laws themselves

For schemes registered before 1 July 1996, the by-laws in Schedule 2 of the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 usually still apply, and the garbage by-law is specific. An owner or occupier must keep a covered garbage receptacle clean and dry within the lot or on authorised common property; must, for collection, place the receptacle within an area designated for that purpose by the owners corporation and at a time not more than 12 hours before the time at which garbage is normally collected; must promptly return it afterwards; must not put anything in another lot’s receptacle without permission; and must clean up anything spilled.

The model by-laws most newer schemes adopted say much the same thing in current language — bins kept within the lot or on authorised common property, in clean and dry condition and covered; placed in the designated collection area no more than 12 hours before collection and promptly returned — and add two things: owners and occupiers must comply with the council’s waste guidelines, and the owners corporation may give directions by signs or written notice, consistent with those guidelines.

Paying a bin-carting contractor? Can we pay this invoice? covers what their invoice has to show.