By Tanya Steele
A Food Organics and Garden Organics or FOGO collection has been announced for households across the Yarra Ranges and will be introduced on 2 October this year.
Once the collection begins, garden clippings and food scraps, including meat and bones, will be able to be disposed of in residents’ FOGO bins, in an effort to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child said the new FOGO bin system was part of the State Government’s Circular Economy Policy.
“Up to 45 per cent of the material in a typical Yarra Ranges household’s rubbish bin is food waste,” he said.
The system is designed to reduce waste and stop material going to landfill, while also reducing harmful greenhouse gases.
“By using the new FOGO service and placing all of our food scraps into the FOGO bin instead of the rubbish bin, we can save 13,500 tonnes of food waste going to landfill every year,” Cr Child said.
“This will significantly reduce our impact on the environment and the unstainable reliance we have had on landfill for many years,” he said.
Ethne Pfeiffer, president of the Healesville Community Garden, welcomed the announcement.
“I think it is a really positive step in terms of whole communities managing their waste,”’ she said.
Residents who do not yet have a green organics bin will receive a new lime green-lidded FOGO bin between August and September, prior to the new service starting on 2 October.
The dark green lids on household garbage bins will also be changed to red, to help people distinguish between each type of bin.
Yellow lidded recycling bins will remain unchanged.
Ms Pfeiffer said it would probably take a while for everyone to get the hang of the changes.
“That’s just us being humans and whoever is on the end of the process picking up our bins, that is going to be messy for a while but that’s our reality,” she said.
Once the new system is in place, the FOGO bin will be collected weekly and taken to a composting facility.
The food material will then be processed to create nutrient-rich compost to help improve soils on farms and gardens.
“The challenge is managing every part of the process to get the benefits,” Ms Pfeiffer said.
As a result of food waste being disposed of through the FOGO bin, household garbage will move to a fortnightly collection.
This new FOGO collection is for all properties, including businesses and community organisations, that currently use council’s waste and recycling services.
To find out more about the new FOGO service, go to yarraranges.vic.gov.au/whywasteit
