Food and garden waste

People in the ACT waste thousands of dollars every year throwing away food. Your household could save up to $2,500 a year by avoiding food waste.

Uneaten food is also a waste of:

• land
• transport
• water
• fuel and energy from refrigeration
• packaging.

Organic waste (food and garden organics) in landfill produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Reducing food waste is a simple way to take climate action. This will improve our waste management and help us achieve net zero emissions in the ACT by 2045.

Small steps for home

Here are some tips to make it easy for you to reduce food waste:

• Make your produce last longer with better food storage.
• Track items stored in your freezer with food storage labels [PDF 267.0 KB].
• Keep a shopping list and meal plan on your fridge.

For more information and other ideas visit The Great UnWaste.

Green garden waste bins

Households, including some apartments and townhouses, can get a 240L green bin for garden organics.

The bins are collected from the kerbside fortnightly. The contents of the bins is processed and made into nutrient-rich compost and mulch products.

See what can and can’t go in your green bin .

There's a one-off registration fee. But a green garden waste bin is free if you have one of these concession cards:

• Department of Veterans' Affairs Gold Card
• Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card
• MyWay Seniors Card.

Order your green garden waste bin.

Composting

Composting at home, school and work is one way to keep food scraps and garden waste out of landfill.

Composting organic waste lowers greenhouse gas emissions from landfill. Compost is full of good bacteria, microbes and worms, which are great for improving the health of soil.

Find out how to compost.

FOGO pilot

FOGO stands for Food Organics and Garden Organics.

A FOGO collection pilot is servicing households in the suburbs of Belconnen (town centre), Bruce, Cook and Macquarie as well as selected apartments in Tuggeranong.

FOGO helps households recycle food scraps along with garden waste in their FOGO bin. All the organics are collected together and turned into nutrient-rich compost.

Since the pilot began in November 2021, over 5,000 tonnes of food and garden waste has been collected. A low contamination rate of less than 1% means better quality compost is produced.

If your household is in the FOGO pilot, find out what can and can’t go in your FOGO bin.

If you have recently moved into a FOGO pilot suburb, contact fogo@act.gov.au to receive a welcome pack. The pack includes everything you need to get started with FOGO.

A city-wide FOGO collection service is subject to further government decision-making and will require a large-scale FOGO processing facility to be built.

Keeping chickens

Chooks are friendly, entertaining and help eat food scraps. They also deliver fresh eggs, valuable manure, and result in fewer flies and pests around your garden.

Chickens need:

• clean water
• food such as grass, vegetables, food scraps grains and insects
• small stones and gravel
• protection from the weather
• protection from predators
• a place to exercise
• a place to lay eggs
• somewhere to roost
• other chickens for company.

Green garden waste drop-off

If you don't have a green garden waste bin, or have large amounts of green garden waste, drop it off at:

• Corkhill Bros green waste recycling centre at Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre (free). Fees apply for oversized residential and commercial garden organic waste including branches or trees larger than 20 cm in diameter and/or 2 m in length.
• Canberra Sand and Gravel on Parkwood Road in Belconnen. Free drop off.
• Canberra Sand and Gravel on Vicars Street in Mitchell. Fees apply.