Glass Recycling

Residents can now place their glass waste in the yellow-lid recycling bin.

Glass recovered through the yellow-lid recycling bins is sent to our recycling contractor in Brisbane where it is sorted into various recoverable grades. The recycled glass is utilised in everything from new glass bottles and jars through to sand substitutes in roads and drainage.

As glass is made from only three natural ingredients – sand, limestone and soda ash – it doesn’t break down into harmful chemicals, making glass the most earth, ocean and animal-friendly packaging option.

How is glass recycled?

Council is committed to investigating and implementing innovative waste and recycling services and has proudly partnered with the world’s leading glass recycling company Visy Glass. The company collects empty glass bottles and jars from designated glass recycling stations in Ipswich and processes the used glass into brand new bottles and jars.

Closed loop recycling system

Glass disposal

• Disposing of glass correctly ensures that it can be recycled and reused over and over again – infinitely.
• Glass bottles and jars can either be dropped off at one of council's glass collection points (listed below) or disposed of in your yellow lid recycling bin at home.
• Give bottles and jars a light clean if necessary and remove lids (plastic or metal lids can go in your yellow-top recycle bin) and any plastic/metal rings or tabs.

Recyclable vs. non-recyclable glass

Not all types of glass are accepted for recycling. In order to keep recyclable glass pure, it’s important that you don’t mix non-recyclable and recyclable glass types at Council’s glass collection points:

• Recyclable glass includes: clear and coloured glass bottles and jars of all sizes are recyclable – including beer, wine and soft-drink bottles, food and vitamin jars.
• Non-recyclable glass includes: drinking glasses, window glass, light bulbs, car windscreens, mirrors, ceramics, china and oven-proof and
• heat-treated glass (e.g. Pyrex). Dispose of these by wrapping in newspaper and placing in your red-top bin.

Council glass collection points

• Council has allocated the below locations as glass collection stations - residents can drop their glass off at any of the below stations at no cost and the glass will be recycled and reused. Council continues to investigate further convenient locations across Ipswich and will update this webpage with these locations as they become available.
• Please note that no container refund is paid to residents who drop their glass at council collection points. Container refunds are only applicable to eligible containers disposed of at special container disposal stations under the Queensland Container Refund Scheme (CRS). While glass containers that are marked as eligible for the Queensland Container Refund Scheme may be dropped off at any of council's below glass collection points, no refund will apply (see following paragraph for more info about the CRS).

Queensland Container Refund Scheme (CRS)

• Queensland uses almost three billion beverage containers each year and most of these end up littering our beautiful state, despite the fact that drink containers can easily be recycled.
• On 1 November 2018 the Queensland State Government introduced its new container refund scheme Containers for Change, where most glass, plastic, aluminium, steel and liquid paperboard beverage containers between 150ml and 3l (displaying the special refund mark) are eligible for a 10c refund per container when returned to a designated refund point.
• Visit the Containers for Change website to find out more about the types of eligible containers, the refund point operators and related information.
• Watch the video below for an overview of the program:

More Information

Recycling services
Household waste services 
FOGO waste services
Ipswich Bin App
Media releases