Carpet and flooring disposalOld carpet, underlay, vinyl and floorboards in Melbourne’s east

Published 23 October 2026. Updated 23 October 2026. Sources checked 23 October 2026.

How much carpet hard rubbish takes in each council

Every council in the east caps carpet differently, and all want it rolled and tied:

Cut carpet into strips no longer than 1.5 m before you roll it. Booking details: Knox, Monash, Maroondah, Whitehorse, Manningham and Yarra Ranges.

Carpet at the tip: what it costs

No transfer station in the east has a carpet rate. It goes in with general waste, and Eastern Recycling in Ringwood says carpet goes to landfill. A small trailer of it:

Can old carpet be recycled?

Not from a house in the east, as far as we could find. Planet Ark’s Recycling Near You directory lists no recycling open to the public for used household carpet and rugs; the take-back schemes it names are some makers’ own carpet tiles, mostly commercial. We found no take-back scheme from the Carpet Institute of Australia either.

If the carpet is in good condition, a smaller piece may be worth offering online as a rug or for a shed floor. Otherwise it’s landfill, by whichever route suits the amount.

Old vinyl, lino and floor tiles: check for asbestos first

Carpet itself isn’t on Victoria’s asbestos lists, but what’s under it or beside it may be. Asbestos in Victoria lists “vinyl floor tiles” and the “backing on sheet flooring” among interior materials that can contain asbestos, and EPA Victoria says houses built before 1990 are likely to have some. WorkSafe Victoria’s code for workplaces says vinyl with a friable backing must be removed by a Class A licence holder.

You can’t tell by looking. If old sheet vinyl, lino or vinyl tiles in a pre-1990 house are coming up, have them assessed first, and don’t scrape or sand the backing.

Floorboards, laminate and floor tiles

Timber floorboards

Hard rubbish takes them only as timber: 10 pieces up to 1.5 m in most councils (12 in Monash, without nails or staples in Maroondah, none in Manningham). A room’s worth goes to the tip, or in a skip with the carpet.

Floating floors and laminate

No council in the east names laminate or floating floors in its hard rubbish rules, so ask yours, or treat them as general waste at the tip or in a skip.

Floor tiles

Every council excludes tiles from hard rubbish. They’re heavy: a tiled floor coming up with the carpet changes the skip size. See what size skip for a renovation.

Carpet in a skip

Carpet and underlay are general waste in a skip. They’re bulky rather than heavy, so space usually runs out before the weight limit. Cut them into strips, roll and tie them tightly, and lay the rolls lengthways along the floor of the skip; loose underlay squashes down if it goes in last. None publishes a carpet surcharge amount, though at least one says carpet costs extra, so ask when you book.

Carpet from a whole house usually comes out with furniture and boxes during a move or a clean-out: the skip bin size calculator works out a house room by room.

Paying to have old carpet taken up

Flooring installers often take up and remove the old carpet when they lay new. The Flooring Centre, a carpet retailer and installer in Hawthorn East and Nunawading, publishes around $8 per square metre to take up the existing carpet and underlay and take it away, charged extra where old rubber underlay is stuck to the floor. It doesn’t say whether GST is included, and it’s offered with its own installations: ask your installer what they charge.

Common questions