Let’s go FOGO!

A Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) bin collection pilot is underway in the suburbs of Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie.

  • A FOGO collection service helps to divert food waste away from landfill, and instead, turns food scraps and garden waste into valuable compost.
  • 5,000 households are part of the pilot.
  • The pilot will inform the future rollout of the FOGO service to the rest of Canberra.

The challenge

Roughly one-third of household rubbish in ACT households is food. This means we’re sending around 26,000 tonnes of food waste to local landfill each year.

The action

Participating households in the pilot suburbs have received a lime green lidded FOGO bin (if they didn’t already have a green waste bin) for garden waste and food scraps.

Households have also been given an easy to use kitchen caddy to conveniently separate their food scraps. The contents of the caddy are placed into the FOGO bin either in a certified compostable liner or tipped in loose with no liner.

The FOGO bin is collected from kerbsides or apartment complexes each week.

The benefit

By diverting food scraps away from landfill and into the FOGO bin along with our garden waste, we’re reducing the harmful greenhouse gases which are produced by organic materials in landfill. Instead, the material collected in FOGO bins is taken and turned into valuable compost which can go back into our parks and gardens across Canberra.

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Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the ACT and recognise any other people or families with connection to the lands of the ACT and region. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.