Grease trap waste is liquid trade waste handled by a licensed carrier. Bins handle the solid streams. How a Sydney restaurant splits fats, food scraps and general waste correctly, and what the FOGO mandate changes.
The short answer: grease trap waste is liquid trade waste. It is pumped out by a licensed liquid waste carrier under your trade waste arrangement, and it never goes in a wheelie bin. Your bins handle the solid streams: general waste, food organics and commingled recycling. Sydney restaurants get into trouble, with their water utility and with their bin provider, when material crosses that line in either direction.
The grease trap exists to stop fats, oils and grease entering the sewer. Everything that leaves your kitchen as a liquid or gets washed off plates and pans ends up passing through it. Trade waste requirements from your water utility set how often the trap must be pumped out, and that pump-out is a specialist service booked with a licensed liquid waste carrier. It is not something a bin provider does, and Bin Hire Australia does not book it. Our grease trap compliance guide covers the obligations in detail.
The bins carry everything solid:
All three streams are bookable across Sydney through your local provider, collected weekly as standard, invoiced directly by the provider.
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Get your exact pricePouring fats into bins. Used cooking oil and liquid fats do not belong in any wheelie bin, general or organics. A bin with free liquid in it can be refused at collection, and a summer bin with oil through it is a cleaning bill and a pest problem. Used cooking oil goes into a dedicated oil container, and collectors will often take it for free because it has resale value.
Scraping solids into the sink. Every plate scraped into the dish pit instead of an organics caddy loads the grease trap harder, which drags the pump-out schedule forward. Solids belong in the organics bin. The trap should only ever deal with what genuinely cannot be caught first.
Run it in this order: scrape solids to organics, wipe or drain fats to the oil container, then wash. The trap catches the remainder, and every stage upstream gets cheaper.
Since 1 July 2026, NSW law requires the largest food businesses, those generating around 3,960 litres or more of general waste a week, to separate food organics from general waste under the Protection of the Environment Legislation Amendment (FOGO Recycling) Act 2025. The threshold drops to around 1,980 litres in 2028 and around 720 litres in 2030, which will capture most full-service restaurants.
A single-site restaurant running one or two 660L general bins a week is under the current tier. But the direction is set, and the operational answer, a 120L or 240L organics bin next to the dish pit, is the same thing that lightens your general bin today. Our FOGO tier guide works through which tier captures which venues.
A typical full-kitchen restaurant lands close to this: one 660L general waste bin, one 240L organics bin, one 240L or 660L recycling bin, all weekly, plus an oil container and the trap pump-out on its own cycle. Tight laneway sites in the inner city often run more smaller bins instead of fewer large ones because of bin room and kerb constraints; the quote flow works that through for your address.
Enter your address and venue type and get your exact price for the bin side in about two minutes. Your local provider delivers, collects weekly and invoices you directly.
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No. Grease trap waste is liquid trade waste and must be pumped out by a licensed liquid waste carrier under your trade waste arrangement. Wheelie bins can be refused at collection if they contain free liquids.
Into a dedicated oil container collected by an oil recycler, never into a wheelie bin or the sink. Many collectors take used cooking oil cheaply or free because it has resale value.
It applies now if your venue generates around 3,960 litres or more of general waste a week, roughly six 660L bins. The threshold drops to around 1,980 litres in 2028 and 720 litres in 2030, which will capture most full-service restaurants.
General waste in 240L, 660L and 1100L, food organics in 120L and 240L, and commingled recycling in 240L, 660L and 1100L, all collected weekly by a vetted local provider who invoices you directly. Booking is free and the exact price shows before you commit.
More resources to help you choose the right bins, schedules, and services.
Adelaide cafes can book a dedicated organics bin alongside general waste, cardboard and recycling. Why food scraps are the expensive part of your bin, and how to size an organics service that pays for itself.
Most Adelaide offices need less bin than they pay for. How to size by headcount, when a recycling or cardboard bin earns its place, and what to check before booking in a shared building.
Hospitality waste is heavy, wet, and fast. How Adelaide venues size their general bins, why the organics stream is the quiet cost-saver, and what the CBD's laneway precincts mean for bin placement.
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