Moving House, Reducing Waste and Recycling Properly

V-Move Removals is committed to promoting environmentally friendly strategies to reduce our and our customers’ output of waste. We hope that we can help you organise your treasure from your trash before the big move comes.

We highly recommend not starting this process at the last minute. The recycling bin can get full, council pick up could be a week away, when there is no time, we are tempted to just send old household items to landfill.

Here is a helpful guide to reducing waste when you move house.

How to Recycle Before A Move

Recycling Furniture

Unwanted furniture can be disposed in the following ways:

• If the furniture is sellable (little to no damage), try selling it on Gumtree, Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, etc.
• Hold a garage sale of your second hand furniture
• Donate to a charity shop, like St Vincent de Paul’s, Goodwill, or Salvation Army, but call them before delivering your item/s. For bigger pieces, you can organise pick-up and delivery with V-move Removals
• Donate furniture, white goods and electricals to the Bower Reuse & Repair Centre: https://bower.org.au/
• If your furniture is from IKEA, they now do a buy-back scheme: https://www.ikea.com/au/en/customer-service/services/buy-back/
• If the furniture is unlovable and needs to be disposed, you can call your local Council for a free curbside pick-up. Be warned, leaving it out on the curb without organising the pick-up is illegal.
• Look up any other furniture recycling facility in your area
• If you need anything transported, call V-Move Removals to get a quote

Refrigerators and other white goods

• If white goods are in good condition, try the online marketplaces listed above
• Ask around to see if friends need any of your items
• Donate to Bower Reuse & Repair Centre: https://bower.org.au/
• If white goods are a certain age and you hold a concession card, the NSW Government offers a buy-back scheme: https://energysaver.nsw.gov.au/households/rebates-and-discounts/appliance-replacement-offer
• Organise with your local council for a pick-up
• Take white goods to a recycling centre
• If you need anything transported, call V-Move Removals to get a quote

Mattresses

• Book a collection with Soft Landing Mattress Recycling: https://www.softlanding.com.au/
• Organise your local council pick-up
• Usually old mattresses don’t get much love from second hand buyers, however depending on its quality, your local charity shop may be interested. Call and see.
• If you need anything transported, call V-Move Removals to get a quote

Old linen

• Old linen can be used in cleaning and renovating and even during the move to cushion fragile items
• Call your local animal rescue centre – they’re always looking for extra materials
• Call your local homeless shelter about donations if you have any old linen that’s still usable
• If you need anything transported, call V-Move Removals to get a quote for rubbish removal

Old clothes and shoes

• Organise a clothes swap with your friends
• Call your local charity shop and they will tell you what they need and will accept
• The nearest recycling depot may recycle wearable clothes and shoes, call ahead, or check online
• If your shoes are not fit for reuse, there are several options: Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe bins are in Rebel Sports stores (check to see if your local store has one); and recycling services including Save Our Soles https://www.saveoursoles.co/ and Shoes For Planet Earth https://www.shoesforplanetearth.com/
• If you need anything transported, call V-Move Removals to get a quote

E-Waste

• Most local councils will do electronic waste pick-ups
• Local recycling depots take items like computers, televisions, printers, ink cartridges  
• If you need anything transported, call V-Move Removals to get a quote

Batteries and globes

• A lot of shops have old battery collection bins, including Officeworks, IKEA, BatteryWorld, Aldi Supermarkets
• Old globes can be taken to Bunnings, IKEA, and council recycling centres

Mobile Phones

• Mobile phones contain over 90% recyclable material
• Mobile Muster is Australia’s main mobile phone recycling organization. Visit their website to find a drop off point near you: http://www.mobilemuster.com.au/recycle-a-mobile/
• Officeworks also have mobile phone recycling bins

Vitamins and Medicines and Makeup

• Not many people know that out-of-date pills need to be disposed of correctly. Chemists around the country can help you dispose of old vitamins and medicines safely. Ask them instore if they are partnered with the RUM scheme: https://returnmed.com.au/
• Several cosmetics brands offer recycling programs for all your leftover makeup and other toiletries. For example, L’Occitane, Jurlique, and Schwarzkopf. Check out Terracycle for more information: https://www.terracycle.com/en-AU/

Chemicals and Paint

• Council Recycling Depots will have chemical and paint disposal facilities
• In New South Wales, Household Chemical Clean Outs events are held all over the state. Check this website for locations and times of the events in your area: https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/recycling-and-reuse/household-recycling-overview/find-crcs-or-hcco

Plastics

• Plastic recycling can be confusing, but there are a few simple ways you can check how to separate your plastic waste
• Scrunch test: if you can scrunch the plastic packaging and it doesn’t immediately bounce back into shape, then it is classified as a “soft plastic”. For example, bubble wrap is a soft plastic. Take soft plastics to REDcycle bins located outside selected supermarkets around Australia. Check here for your nearest bin: https://recyclingnearyou.com.au/
• Rinsing: for hard plastics, it is not necessary to clean containers before putting them in your yellow lid recycling bin, however people may choose to do it to keep their in-home recycling bin from smelling and attracting insects. Hard plastics include takeaway containers and plastic bottles
• Recycled plastic can be made into public outdoor furniture, PET bottles, new recycling bins

Paper and cardboard

• Paper and cardboard recycling goes into your yellow lid bin at home, however when you’re moving you may need to organise a council pick-up for excess waste
• Unlike hard plastics, cardboard must be clean and dry to be recycled – that means no cheesy pizza boxes
• The following can be placed straight into the yellow bin:
  • Printed office paper (staples are allowed)
  • Envelopes (plastic windows allowed)
  • Newspapers and magazines
  • Dry, clean, unwaxed cardboard

Do not put the following into the yellow bin:

• Receipt paper
• Waxed cardboard
• Laminated paper

• V-Move removals sell cardboard boxes, but because they need to be clean to be recycled, use plastic packing materials like tape, and cannot be reused too many times, we highly recommend hiring our plastic moving boxes.

These are more environmentally friendly because they are strong and long-lasting, and can be cleaned and sanitized between jobs. For more information, see our hire packages here: Hire Plastic Boxes