Sydney Waste Index, quarterly report
Sydney Waste Index Q2 2026
What Sydney threw away between Apr and Jun 2026: the bin sizes people booked, the waste streams they filled, how far ahead they planned, and how disposal cost pressure moved. Built from anonymised, aggregated Aussie Skips booking data across greater Sydney.
Headline numbers
Quarter Apr to Jun 2026, compared with the previous quarter and the same quarter a year earlier.
- 10m3Most booked skip size, 22.3% of all deliveries
- 76.6%Share of bins going to construction, trade and commercial jobs
- 1 dayMedian booking lead time for online orders (order to delivery)
- 6 daysMedian hire duration from delivery to collection
- 124.9Volume delivered index (Q3 2024 = 100), -0.7% on last quarter, +17.6% year on year
- 119.7Indicative disposal cost index (Q3 2024 = 100), +4.4% on last quarter, +6.4% year on year
- 94.7%Share of bins booked as general mixed waste
- 23.4%Share of bins going to household clean-ups and home renovations
Volume and indicative disposal cost, indexed
Both series are indexes with Q3 2024 set to 100. The volume line tracks cubic metres of skip capacity delivered across Sydney. The indicative disposal cost index tracks the direction of disposal cost pressure on the Sydney skip market. It is published as movement only; the underlying figures are not disclosed.
| Quarter | Volume index | Indicative disposal cost index |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2024 | 100 | 100 |
| Q4 2024 | 102.4 | 107.1 |
| Q1 2025 | 106.3 | 107.7 |
| Q2 2025 | 106.2 | 112.5 |
| Q3 2025 | 113.9 | 116 |
| Q4 2025 | 117.1 | 114 |
| Q1 2026 | 125.8 | 114.7 |
| Q2 2026 | 124.9 | 119.7 |
Who is booking: residential versus construction and commercial
Share of completed deliveries by project type. Household clean-ups and home renovations together make up the residential share; trade accounts, commercial sites and large hook-lift construction bins make up the rest.
Popular bin sizes
Share of deliveries by bin size across Sydney, then the top sizes within each project type. Sizes are in cubic metres.
Popular bin sizes by local government area
The twelve council areas with the most deliveries this quarter, with each area's share of Sydney deliveries and its four most booked sizes. Size rows with fewer than 10 deliveries are not shown.
Parramatta
11.8% of Sydney deliveries
- 10m324.9%
- 18m319.7%
- 6m313.3%
- 25m310.2%
Canterbury-Bankstown
7.4% of Sydney deliveries
- 6m326.8%
- 10m318.1%
- 4m314.4%
- 3m313.5%
Sydney
7.1% of Sydney deliveries
- 30m318.8%
- 2m318.4%
- 10m314.6%
- 4m313.2%
Blacktown
5.6% of Sydney deliveries
- 10m327.7%
- 6m317.3%
- 4m311.9%
- 30m310.2%
Sutherland
5.4% of Sydney deliveries
- 10m326.9%
- 6m325%
- 4m319.5%
- 13m38%
Northern Beaches
4.4% of Sydney deliveries
- 6m329.1%
- 4m320.9%
- 10m320.3%
- 3m314.2%
Ryde
4.2% of Sydney deliveries
- 18m333.8%
- 6m323.7%
- 4m312.1%
- 8m39.7%
Hornsby
4.1% of Sydney deliveries
- 10m330.2%
- 4m317.2%
- 25m316.7%
- 6m315.4%
Penrith
4% of Sydney deliveries
- 6m328.7%
- 10m323%
- 18m310.6%
- 4m310.4%
Willoughby
3.8% of Sydney deliveries
- 10m331.5%
- 6m319%
- 4m314.1%
- 30m39.6%
Inner West
3.5% of Sydney deliveries
- 4m324.2%
- 10m321.7%
- 3m316.6%
- 6m315.3%
Canada Bay
3.4% of Sydney deliveries
- 4m332%
- 6m323.4%
- 10m310.4%
- 3m39.6%
Waste streams and seasonal trend
What people booked bins for this quarter, and how the mix has shifted across the last four quarters. Booked waste type is the category chosen at order time, so it reflects demand rather than a weighbridge audit.
What comes out the other end
Share of outgoing tonnes from our Sydney transfer stations this quarter by destination stream. Recovered fill, fines, aggregate, masonry, timber, mulch and metals are diverted into reuse and recycling markets; residual mixed waste goes to licensed landfill.
How far ahead Sydney books, and how long bins stay
Lead time is the number of days between the online order and the delivery date, for online and customer-portal bookings with a recorded order time. Hire duration is the number of days between delivery and collection for bins collected this quarter.
Methodology
The Sydney Waste Index is compiled by Aussie Industries from completed skip bin deliveries and transfer station movements across greater Sydney. Figures are aggregated before publication and no individual booking is ever visible.
How each figure is built
- Deliveries. Completed skip bin deliveries of 1.5 cubic metres and above in the quarter. Internal transfers between Aussie Industries businesses are excluded. Shares are the share of those deliveries.
- Project type. Derived from the booked waste type, the customer account type and the bin size. Brick, concrete, stone and clean fill bookings are counted as demolition and excavation. Trade accounts count as commercial and trade, or as construction and development when a hook-lift size (13 cubic metres and above) is booked. Cash bookings count as household clean-ups, or as home renovations at 6 cubic metres and above.
- Local government area. The delivery suburb and postcode are matched to the current NSW local government area using the public Australian postcodes dataset.
- Booking lead time. Days between the order timestamp and the delivery date for online and customer-portal orders. Phone and account orders have no reliable order timestamp and are excluded from this measure only.
- Hire duration. Days between delivery and the matched collection, for collections completed in the quarter.
- Volume index. Total cubic metres of skip capacity delivered, indexed to Q3 2024 = 100.
- Indicative disposal cost index. A relative measure of disposal cost pressure across the Sydney skip market, indexed to Q3 2024 = 100. It is indicative only. What sits underneath it is commercially sensitive and is not published, described or derivable from this report.
- Outgoing streams. Share of outgoing tonnes leaving our Sydney transfer stations in the quarter by destination stream. We do not publish a diversion rate because inbound material is a mix of weighed and volume-assessed loads, so a single defensible recovery percentage cannot be computed from this data alone.
What we publish and what we do not
- No disposal costs, tip fees, prices, revenue, margins or any dollar figures. Cost movement is shown only as an indicative index (base quarter = 100) or a percentage change, and the underlying figures are never described.
- No supplier names, disposal facility names or destinations, contract or tender details, or internal cost structures.
- No customer names, addresses, job references, driver names or site names. Nothing that could identify a customer or a specific job.
- Counts are rounded to the nearest 10 and tonnages are shown as shares, never as absolutes.
- Every breakdown row is based on at least 10 deliveries. Smaller cells are suppressed rather than shown.
- Nothing about specific competitors, contracts or tender work.
- No internal operational metrics such as fleet size, driver numbers, truck utilisation or site throughput.
- Where a figure cannot be defended from the data, it is left out and the reason is stated here.
Press kit
Journalists and researchers are welcome to quote the Sydney Waste Index with attribution to Aussie Industries and a link to this page.
Key stats
- Most booked bin: 10m3 (22.3% of deliveries)
- Construction, trade and commercial share: 76.6%
- Residential share: 23.4%
- Median online booking lead time: 1 day
- Median hire duration: 6 days
- Volume index: 124.9 (+17.6% year on year)
- Indicative disposal cost index: 119.7 (+6.4% year on year)
Quotable lines
Sydney skip bin demand is up 17.6% on the same quarter last year, with 76.6% of bins going to construction, trade and commercial jobs.
The 10m3 skip is Sydney's most booked bin this quarter at 22.3% of deliveries, and 52% of online bookings are placed for next-day delivery or sooner.
Our indicative disposal cost index rose 6.4% year on year, a pressure every Sydney bin operator is carrying into the second half of 2026.
Media contact
Media enquiries: [media contact name and phone pending], or email [email protected].
Download the aggregated tables (CSV) or see all editions.
Published 2026-09-03. Canonical URL /sydney-waste-index/2026-q2/.