North West Tasmania FOGO rollout

To address the growing concerns of organic waste entering landfill, the North West Resource Recovery and Recycling (NWRRR) is announcing the implementation of a regional service for Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) across the Councils of Devonport City, Kentish, Latrobe and Waratah Wynyard, commencing July 2024.

The FOGO program provides a kerbside collection service, allowing residents to dispose of food and garden waste in green-lidded garden waste bins. Once collected and processed, this organic material can be recycled into high-quality compost for use in farms, parks, gardens and sports fields. It is anticipated that around 7,500 tonnes of food and garden waste will be diverted from landfills, mitigating methane emissions, reducing the risk of water pollution and saving future environmental monitoring costs.

The service aims to tackle the concerning statistic that approximately 40% of general household waste comprises food and garden waste, which, when deposited in regular waste bins and transported to landfills, produces powerful greenhouse gases like Methane, with a potency of 28 times that of Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

Households across North West Tasmania will receive a new 240L green-lidded wheelie bin between mid-May and mid-June. This bin is for the disposal of food and garden organic scraps such as vegetable peelings, fruit, cooked food, lawn clippings and weeds.

Residents are encouraged to collect food scraps in any container and transfer them to the green-lidded FOGO bin. This bin will be collected as part of Veolia’s fortnightly waste collection service alongside general waste and recycling.

CEO of Dulverton Waste Management (DWM), Veronica Schilling, said, “We are thrilled to be facilitating the FOGO roll out across these five Councils and expect that the new bin will give households the opportunity to see their food and garden scraps as a useful resource that can do good for the soil, rather than simply being waste”.

The science already exists to support this position. The National Waste Action Plan has a target to reduce organic waste by 50% by 2030. It is estimated that there is around 47,400 tonnes of food and organic waste in the kerbside bins that could be composted in Tasmania.

Most recently EPA SA reported that landfills have a harsh impact on the environment and human health due to landfill gas, odour, litter, vermin, dust and leachate. By diverting organic waste through the FOGO system, we are reducing the scale of current environmental impacts as well as the need to create future landfills for a growing population.

The service already exists in Central Coast Council, where households annually divert more than 1,500 tonnes from landfill for composting in Launceston. Hobart City rolled the service out in 2019 and divert around 4,000 tonnes or 277 rubbish trucks worth annually. Launceston City, Meander Valley, Northern Midlands and a number of other places also provide a green bin for residents.

Additionally, Circular Head plans to join the FOGO program in the next 2 years, further expanding its reach.