Bookable bulky waste service
Our bookable service gives you flexibility to dispose of your bulky household items when it’s most convenient for you.
Each household in Lake Macquarie that pays a ‘Domestic Waste Management Charge’ as part of their rates is entitled to receive two bulky waste services in a rolling 12-month period.
There are two service options to choose from:
How do my entitlements work?
You are entitled to request up to two services within any 12-month period. These services can include:
- two kerbside collections
- two drop-off vouchers
- one kerbside collection and one drop-off voucher)
Your 12-month rolling entitlement cycle begins on the date of your first booking—either when you schedule your first kerbside collection or when a drop-off voucher is issued via email.
Entitlements reset every 12 months from that date, giving you control over when your entitlement cycle starts.
Regardless of your choice of drop-off voucher or kerbside collection booking, each time your entitlements reset, you can choose to use them in any combination that suits your needs.
How do I make a booking?
For the property you reside at, you can make a booking or check the available bulky waste entitlements below.
Book your bulky waste service or request a drop-off voucher
You can change or cancel your existing kerbside collection booking up to three days prior to your booked collection day below.
Change or cancel your existing booking
What is accepted?
You can put out up to 2m3 of bulky items per booking. if you have more, you can use both your services at once and put 4m3 of material out for collection.
Acceptable items
- Dryers, washing machines and dishwashers
- Furniture e.g. Lounges, chairs, tables
- Appliances and electronics e.g. toaster, blender, power cords
- Toys and sporting goods
- Scrap metal including barbecues
- Mattresses
- Flooring such as carpet and rugs
- Green waste - must be bundled with natural string. Includes tree branches under 100mm thickness.
Unacceptable items
- Asbestos and fibro sheets or planks
- Batteries of any kind
- Fibreglass items including sheeting and bats
- Vinyl and linoleum
- Tyres
- Liquids
- Glass or mirrors
- Bean bags or any items containing polystyrene - including polystyrene loose fill packaging
- Domestic or perishable garbage
- Items over 80kg
- Pesticides, flammable materials, paints, gas cylinders or car batteries
- Car bodies, large engine blocks, rubble, concrete, building and construction waste
Bulky waste piles containing asbestos, fibro sheets/planks, vinyl or linoleum will not be collected.
Some of the items above can be recycled at the Community Recycling Centre at Awaba Waste Management Facility, free of charge. See what items are accepted.
A drop-off voucher entitles you to dispose of 250kg of waste per drop-off or book both your services at once allowing up to 500kg to be dropped off. Loads over the voucher weight limit will be charged as per Council’s fees and charges.
If you are disposing of asbestos, please select the asbestos only waste voucher option. You must provide 24 hours’ notice of your drop-off by calling 02 4921 0778. Only one asbestos voucher can be booked and presented at a time. Mixed loads containing asbestos material will not be accepted.
Acceptable items
- Dryers, washing machines and dishwashers, fridges, freezers and air conditioners
- Furniture - lounges, chairs, tables
- Appliances and electronics - toaster, blender and heater
- Electronic waste - TVs, laptops, phones, batteries, light bulbs and power cords
- Building and construction waste - concrete, bricks, tiles, stone, plasterboard and soil
- Glass including windows and mirrors
- Toys and sporting goods including bicycles
- Scrap metal including barbecues
- Mattresses
- Flooring - carpet, rugs and linoleum
- Green waste
Unacceptable items
- Asbestos (unless using an asbestos drop-off voucher) and fibro sheets or planks
- Liquid waste
- Chemicals and pesticides
- Medical waste
- Car bodies and engine blocks
- Tractor and truck tyres
- Special waste including deceased animals
What can I do with unacceptable items?
Recycle a wide range of items free of charge at the Community Recycling Centre, located at the Awaba Waste Management Facility, including gas cylinders, paint, e-waste, fire extinguishers, motor oil and batteries. Organise your trailer or ute so you can easily access these items when you arrive before crossing the weighbridge.
Find out more about the Community Recycling Centre.
Look in the Lake Macquarie City Council A-Z waste and recycling guide for more ideas and places that can accept the items.
Give new life to unwanted items
Before using the bulky waste service, you should consider other ways to repair, reuse or recycle your unwanted items. You can avoid sending waste to landfill by repairing, gifting, selling or recycling your unwanted items.
Find out more about how you can repair, reuse or recycle.
Frequently asked questions
Properties that pay a Domestic Waste Management Charge (DWMC) through the rates are entitled to two bulky waste services in a rolling 12-month period.
For a kerbside collection the service entitlement resets 12 months after the kerbside collection date. For a drop-off voucher the service entitlement resets 12 months after the date it was booked and issued by email. Entitlements will not roll over into the following 12-month period. Any entitlements not used in the property’s 12-month period will be forfeited. You can check the bulky waste entitlements for the property you reside at using the Book your bulky waste service button above.
If your property has no available entitlements, the property will then be eligible to book and pay for additional kerbside collections, subject to availability. Fees apply for additional kerbside collections and must be paid by credit card at the time of booking.
Yes, residents that rent can book a service for the property they reside at. Property owners, authorised Property Managers or Client Service Officers can also book on a tenant's behalf.
If you live in a strata complex and pay the Domestic Waste Management Charge (DWMC) through your rates, you are entitled to two bulky waste services in a rolling 12 month period for your dwelling.
If you live in a multi-occupancy complex, individual dwellings have not pre-paid for a service through their rates.
If unsure, check with your complex manager or landlord to confirm what arrangement applies to your property.
If you have no entitlements, you can book a kerbside collection and pay the additional service fee by credit card at the time of booking.
You can check your property's entitlements by clicking the Book your bulky waste service button above.
A kerbside collection booking entitles the resident to present up to 2m3 (2m x 1m x 1m, like a small box trailer load) of household bulky waste. Up to two bookings can be made at the same time for larger kerbside collections. When booking two collections the total size limit will be 4m3 (4m x 1m x 1m). View our service entitlement guideline.
A drop-off voucher entitles the user to drop off up to 250kg of household bulky waste at the Awaba Waste Management Facility. For residents utilising two drop-off vouchers in one visit the load size limit is 500kg. Fees apply for waste over the voucher limit.
An asbestos only voucher entitles the user to drop off up to 100kg of asbestos waste at the Awaba Waste Management Facility.
Placing your waste out on the kerb the day before your collection day minimises the opportunity for others to dump waste on your pile and helps keep our streets tidy and safe.
Residents only have approval to place acceptable items safely on the kerb outside of their house the day prior to their booked collection. Outside this timeframe, it is unlawful to place anything on a footpath or anywhere within the road reserve, and fines/penalties apply.
On your scheduled collection day our bulky waste trucks operate throughout the LGA. Mattresses, electronic waste, bundled and tied green waste and bulky waste are collected by different trucks. If your pile has not been collected by 4.00pm on your collection day, please call our Customer Service centre on 49 210 333 to request an investigation into your bulky waste collection.
If something wasn’t collected, it usually means it fell outside the bulky waste guidelines in some way.
For example:
- Too much waste was put out (maximum limit 2m3 per household)
- It was stacked in the wrong location (e.g. outside a vacant block or on private property)
- It was put out after 4.30am on the collection day (i.e. it missed the collection timeframe)
- It was not an accepted waste type (e.g. tyres, commercial/industrial waste, dangerous materials)
- The waste wasn’t treated correctly (e.g. fridges without doors removed)
- This type of waste was not selected in your booking so the required truck was not sent to collect it.
A notice would have been left in your letterbox detailing why your waste wasn't collected.
If you followed the guidelines and think your waste was accidentally missed, please call us on 02 4921 0333 to discuss.
There are a few possibilities.
- The waste was not an approved waste type.
- You didn't select that specific waste type as part of your booking. Each approved waste type is treated differently and collected by different trucks – so you need to ensure you select the correct waste types when making your booking.
- The items were not stacked in four separate piles. Each approved waste type is treated differently and may be collected by different trucks – so you need to stack waste types separately on the kerbside or some items may be missed.
If you followed the rules and think your waste was accidentally missed, please call us on 02 4921 0333 to discuss.
You will receive an email letting you know that your pile exceeded the 2m3 limit and your second entitlement was used.
The bulky waste service entitlements belong to the property and are intended to be booked and used by the occupier of the property. This ensures the bulky waste service is accessible to renters and residents living within the city.
Yes. The bookable bulky waste service is more cost-effective to ratepayers than the previous scheduled service. The bookable service allows trucks to operate across the city through collection zones, similar to the kerbside garbage collection system. The switch to the bookable service is expected to reduce bulky waste operating costs by around $5 million over the next 10 years. These savings will be used to slow the increasing costs of waste disposal which ratepayers pay for through their annual Domestic Waste Management Charge (a cost-recovery charge that makes up part of rates).
The bookable service provides greater flexibility for our residents to book a kerbside collection when they need it , or choose a voucher to drop-off their waste at Awaba Waste Management Facility. The bookable service is also expected to:
- improve the visual appearance of our city – bulky waste will not fill the verge of whole suburbs at a time, it will not stay out on the kerbside for as long, and there will be less litter
- provide our community with a more financially sustainable bulky waste service
- reduce the tonnage of bulky waste collected, and encourage our residents to be more aware of their waste disposal decisions
- extend the life of our only landfill facility at Awaba – the amount of bulky waste collected in Lake Macquarie has increased by 69 per cent over the past 10 years
- reduce illegal dumping of bulky waste
- improve manual handling conditions for our local collection crews.
The majority of councils in NSW that offer a bulky waste kerbside collection service deliver the service through a booked collection method.
Yes. The amount of bulky waste collected in Lake Mac has increased by 69 percent over the past 10 years (2012- 2022). The amount of bulky waste collected per household in Lake Mac is the sixth largest in NSW at 131kg per household. The bookable service encourages residents to book a service when they need one, and consider reuse and recycling options for their unwanted items. Based on the experience of other Councils it is expected to result in 15 -30% less bulky waste material sent to landfill each year extending the life of our only landfill at Awaba.