Never put hazardous household chemicals in your rubbish bin or pour them down the drain
Throwing hazardous household chemicals in your rubbish bins is dangerous. They can explode, catch fire, leak, or mix with other substances—posing serious risks in your bin, the collection truck, or at sorting facilities.
Pouring chemicals down the drain may pollute waterways and make rivers and beaches unsafe for swimming, contaminate our water supply, and harm wildlife and vegetation.
Safely dispose of your hazardous household chemicals at our Detox Your Home events
Drop off accepted hazardous household chemicals at our free Detox Your Home events, staffed by trained chemists.
If your item isn’t accepted, check other safe disposal options.
Register for an event
Events are free for all Victorians. You are welcome to attend any event, even if it's not hosted by your local council.
If you aren't able to register for an event, make sure you store hazardous chemicals safely until you are able to safely dispose of them.
Before the event
- Only bring accepted items.
- The maximum acceptable weight or size of a single container is 20 kg or 20 L. This is for lift-related occupational health and safety reasons of our chemists.
- Label items clearly:
- use the original packaging if possible
- if repackaged, write contents with a permanent marker
- label unknown substances as 'Unknown'.
- Bring chemicals in disposable containers that you can leave behind – decanting is not permitted at the event site.
- Place items in your empty car boot or tray.
Read our tips on how to safely manage hazardous household chemicals.
At the event
- Follow event signage and directions provided by event and council staff.
- Stay in your car – our trained event staff and qualified chemists will unload items for you.
- It takes 10 to 15 minutes for our team to service each car.
Accepted items
What does Detox Your Home accept?
- Acids and alkalis (including spirit of salt, bleach, rust remover and hydrochloric acid)
- Aerosols (empty aerosol cans can be put in your kerbside recycling bin)
- Aerosol paint* (empty aerosol cans can be put in your kerbside recycling bin)
- Automotive paint*
- Bleach
- Brake fluid
- Butane gas canisters (small camping stove-style canisters only. Detox Your Home does not accept gas bottles or cylinders)
- Coolant
- Fire extinguishers (non-halon (red) fire extinguishers only)
- Fertiliser
- Fuel (old lawn mower/power tools fuel, petrol, diesel and kerosene)
- Hand sanitiser
- Herbicides
- Insect sprays
- Machine oil and lubricant (motor oil is not accepted)
- Nail polish remover
- Oven cleaner
- Photographic chemicals
- Pesticides
- Poisons (including rat poison, pesticides and snail bait)
- Pool chemicals (including liquid pool chlorine and pool salts)
- Rat poison
- Rust remover
- Spirit of salt
- Spray paint* (empty aerosol cans can be put in your kerbside recycling bin)
- Transmission fluid
- Turpentine, thinners and paint strippers*
- Weed killers
- Wood preservatives and finishes*
* Paint acceptance
These paint items are accepted at Detox Your Home events. If your paint is not on this list, it is not accepted at Detox Your Home events.
For safety reasons, the following items require pre-approval before they can be accepted at an event
- Heating oil (from old household heater oil tanks)
- Heavy metals (including mercury thermostats, thermometers)
- Helium gas cannisters
- Propane gas cylinders (including Tradeflame)
For pre-approval, contact us on 1300 135 410 and provide the following information:
- the amount (in litres or kg) or number of items
- the Detox Your Home event you plan to attend.
Approval depends on the number of items for disposal and event capacity. Each request is assessed on a case-by-case basis. We cannot guarantee that all requests will be approved.
Page last updated: 22/07/26