Recycling and waste reduction programs

Council periodically offers residents subsidised items such as compost bins, worm farms and pet poo composters to help you reduce waste to landfill.

For 2025/26 Council is currently offering:

• Worm farms (including worms) - $65
• Compost bins
  • 110L tumbler - $45
  • 220L bin - $30
• Pet poo composter
  • Small - $25
  • Deluxe - $100

Stock is limited. Ensure you bring proof of ID (must be a Shire resident). Limited to one item per household. 

Available at the Creswick, Daylesford and Trentham transfer stations.

The 2024/25 reusable products voucher program is now closed. Thanks to everyone who participated in the program. More information about a program for the 2025/26 year coming soon. 

Eligible items for 2024/25 included:

• Cloth nappies
• Swim nappies
• Training pants
• Wet bags
• Reusable wipes
• Liners
• Inserts and boosters
• Cloth nappy covers
• Period products, such as reusable pads and period cups
• Nursing pads
• Incontinence underwear
• Period swimwear
• Absorbent bed sheets

Why change to reusable items?

• Around 660 million disposable nappies, sanitary and incontinence products end up in landfill in Australia each year?
• Every child will use on average 6,000-7,000 nappies before they toilet train. 
• Over the course of a lifetime, a menstruator will use between 5,000 – 15,000 sanitary products. Most of which will end up in a landfill.
• During production, disposable nappies use three times more energy and water, and 20 times more raw materials than reusable nappies.
• It takes one cup of crude oil to make one disposable nappy.
• Each nappy takes 500+ years to breakdown in landfill, releasing methane in the process (a harmful gas which contributes to global warming).
• On average, a child will use $3,500 worth of nappies. Reusable nappies can cost you between $500 and $1,500.
• Reusable nappies can be used from child to child and from household to household. Buying reusable nappies second hand can cut down costs even further.
• If you use disposable nappies, these go in your landfill/general rubbish bin.

Learn more

• More information on types, washing and fitting is also available on the Raising Children website and the Sustainability Victoria website
• How to wash cloth nappies(PDF, 1MB)
• Sanitary products care instructions(DOCX, 94KB)

Find out more about the:

• Daylesford Repair Cafe - events on third Sunday of the month.
• Creswick Repair and Share - events at the Saturday Creswick market (9 am – 12 pm) on the third Saturday of the month.

Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme (CDS)

CDS is a Victorian Government initiative that provides 10c refund for every eligible drink container returned (from November 2023). Many sites are now open to accept containers. Before you visit, download the CDS Vic West app from the Apple App Store or Google Play for a seamless experience.

Current locations in Hepburn Shire region:

 Creswick – The Hub, 68 Albert Street, Creswick - Reverse Vending Machine

 Daylesford Industrial Estate, 37-39 East Street, Daylesford - Reverse Vending Machine

 Clunes IGA, 1 Service St, Clunes - Reverse Vending Machine

 Trentham Football and Netball Club, 25 Falls Road, Trentham - Reverse Vending Machine

Visit the CDS website for details regarding the locations, eligible containers and how the scheme works.

Please note that TOMRA Cleanaway operates the machines. For all enquiries, please contact enquiries@tomracleanaway.com.au

 Council is beginning a trial of CDS baskets on some public place bins, in an aim to increase recycling and reduce the damage to bin surrounds. Items in the baskets can be taken by anyone in the community to swap for a 10c refund through the CDS scheme. 

Soft plastics cannot go in your yellow-lidded recycling bin and should currently be disposed of in the red-lidded general waste bin. Soft plastics include items such as re-usable shopping bags, newspaper wrapping, bubble wrap, plastic bags, zip-lock bags, biscuit wrapping (not the trays), lolly packs, bread bags, pasta and rice bags, courier satchels, cereal box liners, chip and cracker packets.

Council is investigating other options for resource recovery of soft plastics.

Pack your reusables, reduce our plastic pollution!

In 2023 the Victorian Government banned the following single-use plastics from sale and supply:

• Drinking straws
• Cutlery and plates
• Drink stirrers and sticks
• Cotton bud sticks and,
• Expanded polystyrene food and drink containers.

Items made from conventional, degradable and compostable plastics, including bioplastic and oxo-degradable materials, will be included in the ban. The ban will affect retail and hospitality, businesses, suppliers and other businesses, organisations and not-for profits such as hospitals, sports clubs and schools.

Single-use plastics are used briefly but go on to remain in the environment for a long time, making up over a third of all litter. They are difficult to recycle and are a common contaminant in recycling facilities. By banning single use plastics we can minimise waste to landfill, reduce plastic pollution, and protect our wildlife and environment.

There are many great reusable options and alternative single use items to be considered, such as: 

• Cutlery made from stainless steel, bamboo or heavyweight plastic that can be reused.
• Reusable glass, heavyweight plastic, or metal containers/cups.
• Straws made from bamboo, stainless steel, or silicone.
• Cotton pads or buds with bamboo sticks.

Visit Single Use Plastics Ban and Sustainability Victoria for more information and support.

Plastic Free July® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics?

Sign up to take the challenge, take the quiz to get you thinking of ways you use and can reduce plastic – maybe even share with friends, family and colleagues to get them thinking how they might use less – or even none.

The Plastic Free July website has lots of resources and ideas to get you started!