Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO)

FOGO stands for Food Organics and Garden Organics. The kerbside collection service, coming to North West Tasmania, is for both food and garden waste including kitchen scraps, lawn clippings and small branches. When FOGO is collected and processed, it is turned into compost to be used in farms, parks and sports fields, rather than just rotting in landfill.

Households in Burnie and Circular Head who currently have recycling service, will be provided with a 240L green-lidded wheelie bin in August 2025 ahead of the fortnightly service commencing from September 2025.

Only start filling your new FOGO bin in the last week of August 2025.

Bins have been delivered to households in the service area in Central Coast, Devonport, Kentish, Latrobe and Waratah-Wynyard Council areas. If you think you have missed out please use the phone or email on the Contact Us page and we can make enquiries on your behalf to your local Council.

About 40% of all the general waste produced by our households is food and garden waste. When this waste is placed in the landfill bin and sent to landfill, it degrades and generates environmentally harmful greenhouse gases.

There is also a cost for waste that goes to landfill - by reducing the waste going to landfill we save you and the community money while creating a greener, safer future.

It starts in your kitchen and garden. You can use any container to collect your food scraps from the kitchen and tip them into the green lidded FOGO bin. If you have a garden or indoor plants, leaves, flowers and prunings, from these can also be placed into the FOGO bin. Ensure to maintain general hygiene by cleaning out your scraps container and washing your hands when handling.

The FOGO bin is then collected as part of the fortnightly waste collection service, similar to the current recycling collection. From there, FOGO waste is taken to a processing facility to begin the treatment and testing to create healthy composting that will be used around the local community and farms.

For communities in the new service, general waste will then be collected fortnightly; except Latrobe and Central Coast, which already have fortnightly collections for waste.

Simply collect food scraps [meats, dairy, bones] and garden waste [weeds, lawn clippings, small branches] that you may normally put in your landfill bin, and instead put them into the FOGO bin.

You can put food and organic garden waste in your FOGO bin. Food waste includes vegetable peelings, fruit, cooked food, leftovers, meat and bones, seafood waste, dairy and citrus. Together with your food waste, your garden organics such as lawn clippings, weeds, veggie patch waste and small branches can also be added to the bin.

Our A-Z guide of what can go into your FOGO bin will be in the information kit when the bin is delivered and on Council’s website.

PLEASE DO NOT put any plastics or biodegradable plastics, plastic bags, cling wrap, glass, tins and cans, foil, Tetrapaks, nappies, treated timber, gravel, rocks or building material into your FOGO bin.

Fireplace ash, road kill, pet waste and dead animals are also not suitable - these can go in the landfill bin.

Separate food waste from containers so only food waste goes in FOGO. If the container is recyclable, then give it a rinse and it can go into the recycling bin.

Our A-Z guide of what can go into your FOGO bin will be in the information kit when the bin is delivered and on Council’s website.

Great! You will find the FOGO service can process a larger amount of garden organics and ‘harder to compost items’ such as: dairy, meat, bones, bread, grains and citrus. This means you can use it alongside your home composting.

We have chosen not to provide caddies to simplify the service, reduce cost to households and provide a choice in what works for you. This also means no extra plastic made.

Use items you already have to collect your kitchen scraps like an old tupperware or ice-cream container.

NO bin liners can be used to prevent cross contamination. Instead, line your chosen container with paper towel or newspaper to prevent mess.

It’s no lie that waste will smell at times, just like your landfill bin may do now. Below are tips that you can use to reduce this:

• Keep your bin in the shade if possible and always keep the lid shut

• Layer your food waste with garden waste such as lawn clippings and leaf litter or cardboard/waste paper

• Rinse you bin out regularly and let it dry completely

• Freeze fish and meat waste, and put in your FOGO bin the morning of collection

• Use a sprinkling of bicarbonate soda to deodorise your bin or caddy

• Offer a helping hand to anyone in the community, such as an elderly neighbour, who may struggle to implement this

The FOGO bin, alongside landfill and recycling bins, will be collected fortnightly.

Changes to services in Burnie and Circular Head will be advised in August as the bins are delivered, before the service is due to start in September 2025.

The fortnightly collection schedule helps keep costs down which means no increased collection fees for ratepayers.

The fortnightly collection schedule has proven successful in Councils across Tasmania already providing FOGO given the cooler climate, compared to the mainland. Residents of Latrobe Councils have had fortnightly waste collections for more than 20

years without any significant issues.

We understand moving to fortnightly waste collection can feel like a big change for some, so we have a few supports in place to help everyone manage - contact your local council for more information.

The transition calendar will be available in early June for all Councils.

You cannot opt out if you live within the designated service area. This initiative is going to be delivered to 38,000 households across the North West of Tasmania as part of the current waste collection service.

Charges will be set by each Council across the North West and provided in their budget papers. The Councils have worked together to create the best value for the bin collection service. For most Councils the cost will be minimised with:

• No extra collections (except Latrobe), as the general waste service will be fortnightly;

• Reduced processing costs compared to landfill; and

• No state levy applicable to the material in this bin saving over $40/tonne from the service start day compared to landfilling.

The FOGO process provides a more cost effective service than landfill, which in turn lowers costs for rate payers in the community. It also provides an opportunity to assess how much waste we produce and where we can reduce this by changing our buying habits.

Nappy, animal and medical waste remain in the landfill bin. Under health and safety considerations, we are unable to process these items.

Yes. Multi-unit dwellings are able to receive a service to supplement your kerbside bin collections. If you have a recycling bin now, your property will get the FOGO bin. If not, property owner/rate payer consent is required and a service fee does apply.

Yes, if you have a recycling bin now, your property will get the FOGO bin. If not, property owner/rate payer consent is required and a service fee does apply.

Contact your local council for an answer specific to your area and context.

At this stage we are focused on rolling the service out to households but want to food service businesses as soon as possible. Please register your interest at hello@nwrrr.com.au using the subject line “Commercial FOGO Interest”.

FOGO is one simple thing you can do with your waste that will make a big difference for the environment. However, reducing food waste in the first place is crucial. A lot of energy, water, financial and natural resources go into the production of the food we buy and what we waste. Reducing your food waste in the first place will not only help the environment but also save you money. Here are more ways to reduce food waste:

• Make a list - Check your fridge and pantry supplies, make a list before shopping and stick to it.

• Manage your supplies - check use by dates to ensure you don’t let food spoil simply by being overlooked

• Plan ahead - Plan meals and what to do with leftovers - like turning it into tomorrow's lunch or freezing it to use later on.

• Check out resources online for ideas on how to get the most from food in season and save money while eating it at its freshest. There are many websites that can provide tips to get better value and reduce food waste. Google “avoid food waste” and browse on.

Within the plant making the compost there will be six new jobs created. However, the facility also supports the many food processors in the North West that need to meet sustainability targets to keep their retailers commitments and the farms that supply produce to them; which supports more than 1,000 jobs in the region.