Meet the locals who rescue items from apartment bin rooms

Every Tuesday afternoon, City of Sydney residents drop off accepted items at the Ultimo recycling pop-up, happy to be saving them from landfill.

Linda, who lives nearby, has rallied her whole building to the cause. She brings along empty blister packs, clothes, batteries, coffee pods and electronics on behalf of her building each week.

“There’s so much more we can recycle than we knew about,” Linda said.

“I set up an area in the bin room where my neighbours can leave their stuff and put up some posters from the City of Sydney website.”

Since then, the residents in her building have become so good at recycling, they’ve reduced their number of red lid bins by one third: a win for the environment and their bank accounts.

Another regular to the Ultimo recycling pop-up is Kim, the cleaner at an apartment block nearby. He’s usually there to greet the team every Tuesday at 2pm when the roller doors open.

There’s over 300 units in his building, making for a steady supply of old paint tins and gas bottles, which Kim regularly brings to our little recycling centre. He’s rescued more than 330kg of items from landfill.

Local resident Geoffrey, who cycles to the pop-up every week, said he has the cleanest bin room in town.

He sifts through the bins at his 100-unit complex and pulls out x-rays, polystyrene, light bulbs and more.

“I can’t stand to see people throwing out stuff that can be responsibly recycled,” Geoffrey said.

“There’s so many things people put in the bin that can be reused. I also make regular trips to our local daycare centre with toys and perfectly good stationery that’s been chucked out.”

Since the Ultimo recycling pop-up opened in November 2022, City of Sydney residents have rescued more than 32 tonnes of tricky household items otherwise destined for landfill.

Recycling programs officer Caitilin Pettigrew said it’s never been easier to recycle items that can’t go in your kerbside bins.

“Every item brought to the Ultimo recycling pop-up is either reused or recycled into new products and we’re continually adding new streams where possible. We now also take empty blister packs, small metal items like pots and pans, and food scraps," she said.

“Empty blister packs are made from more than one material and can’t go in household bins, but special machinery can separate the aluminium, which can be infinitely recycled.

“We love chatting with residents and helping them with all their recycling questions while they drop off their items.

“If you become one of our regulars, we’ll give you a special code for a speedy check-in and track the total weight of what you’ve recycled over time,” she said.

The Ultimo recycling pop-up accepts items from all City of Sydney residents and is open every Tuesday (except public holidays), 2pm to 7pm at 10-16 Bay Street, Ultimo.

Read the full list of what you can recycle.