Taking a Look Under the FOGO Lid – Wollongong
Ever wondered what happens to your FOGO waste once it leaves your kerb? Wollongong City Council is taking residents on a video tour of how they collect, sort, and convert your food scraps and lawn clippings into compost material.
According to Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM, there is still room for improvement in FOGO-ing. They discovered through a kerbside bin audit that approximately 30% of waste in red bins is made up of food waste. To address this, they encourage residents to divert more food waste out of landfill.
Even a small amount of FOGO (Food Organics, Garden Organics) counts towards making a difference. Research shows that if everyone in Wollongong placed every little bit of food waste in the green-lidded bin, an additional 150kg of waste per household would be saved each year, which totals 11,050 tonnes of food waste from going to landfill annually.
FOGO helps save space in Wollongong’s limited landfill resources and reduces methane gas emissions, thus reducing the city’s environmental footprint. Everyone can play a role in this effort by participating in the FOGO challenge.
The City of Wollongong has been using FOGO since its launch in 2020. In response to the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) new FOGO guidelines, the council has phased out outdated educational materials. The major change for Wollongong residents is that cardboard and paper are no longer accepted in FOGO bins. Pizza boxes with food should be placed in the yellow-lidded recycling bin instead. Takeaway packaging marketed as compostable or biodegradable should also be placed in the recycling bin.
All food waste, garden waste, and compostable bin liners with the AS 4736 code and seedling logo are still accepted in FOGO.
Although the community is generally doing the right thing by only putting food and garden organic waste in their green-lidded bins, some contaminants such as plastic bags and building waste occasionally end up in FOGO bins. The council ensures a robust FOGO system by sorting the waste before composting to remove any contaminants.
The food scraps are transformed into compost material, which is then used on the city’s sports fields, parks, gardens, and open spaces. Therefore, every little bit of effort counts, and residents are encouraged to continue their FOGO-ing and give FOGO a try if they haven’t already.
For the full journey, from the kerbside to the final product, you can view the video here.
