Decision on FOGO at next Council meeting

Published on 14 September 2023

FOGO bin

We know that bin collection is a hot topic in our community so we wanted to keep you up to date...  

Council will consider making changes to our current kerbside collection service at the Council meeting on Tuesday 19 September.   

Up for consideration is the introduction of a food organics and garden organics (FOGO) collection for residents in townships who currently receive a weekly kerbside collection. This service would begin in early 2024.  

Should Council decide to go ahead, this would mean some changes to our kerbside collection:

  • Lime green-lidded FOGO bins would be collected weekly
  • Red-lidded landfill (general waste) bins would be collected fortnightly
  • Yellow-lidded recycling bins would be collected fortnightly (no change)

Under the recommendation there would be no change to costs for ratepayers for this financial year. Costs would incur from 1 July 2024, which would be explored as part of the budget process.

Why the change?

This is an action in our Sustainable Hepburn Strategy that was co-designed with the community and many Councils are already doing this. We know from our audits that 53% of the contents of red-lidded landfill bins are made up of things that could go in a FOGO bin – things like food scraps and leftovers, meat, bones and seafood, dairy products, cooked and uncooked food, garden clippings, leaves, small plants, weeds and roses.  

Diverting organic material from landfill is far better for the environment. Organic material in landfill emits around 400kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per tonne. Composting emits one-tenth of this - around 40kg CO2e per tonne! When organic matter breaks down in landfill it creates methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

All local governments need to introduce FOGO collection by 2030 under the state government’s Recycling Victoria legislation.  

We’ve been running a trial FOGO collection at Clunes since 2021. Thanks to residents, we have diverted more than 300 tonnes of FOGO from landfill. We process the FOGO right here in our Shire at Creswick to create beautiful, high-quality compost that can be used locally.

Want to find out more about what is proposed? Read the Council agenda.

Want to tune in to the meeting? The Council meeting will be held at Daylesford Town Hall from 5.30pm on Tuesday 19 September. You can attend in person or watch the livestream via Facebook.

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