Residents of one local council could soon get up to five bins to help them sort their rubbish from their recycling.

Surf Coast Shire, which covers Torquay, Anglesea and Lorne, has been forced to dump 350 tonnes of recycling a month into landfill since the collapse of recycling company SKM, which collected for 30 councils across the state.

Now the council is planning to roll out a fourth bin for residents to separate glass from other recycling. And a fifth bin could soon follow, acting chief executive Anne Howard has said.

“The use of a fifth bin is still being explored including what will be collected and the scale and location of the trial,” she said, adding that many residents had taken responsibility for their recycling instead of letting it go to landfill, taking it direct to local transfer stations."

Deakin University recycling expert Trevor Thornton, who lives on the Surf Coast, said he was warming to the idea of separate bins for glass, as broken glass can make other paper and plastic unfit for recycling.