Your food and garden waste can soon be sent to a better home, with a new initiative to be rolled out by Warrnambool City Council that will equate to taking almost 900 cars off the road each year.
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Council is expected to deliver fortnightly “food organics garden organics” kerbside collection to all households by July 2019, following a $300,000 grant from the Victorian Government.
The project will see organic material from Warrnambool households collected and turned into compost rather than going into landfill.
Approximately 45 per cent of material in the average household rubbish bin is FOGO material, including fruit and vegetable scraps, processed food and leftovers from meals such as meat, fish, chicken, bread, egg, egg shells, dairy products, coffee grounds and tea bags.
Garden waste can include grass clippings, flowers and herbs, small branches and leaves.
Households will receive a green-lidded wheelie bin that is collected fortnightly as well as a kitchen caddy and compostable liners to collect their FOGO material.
Warrnambool Mayor Tony Herbert said diverting FOGO from garbage bins has the potential to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, which equates to removing 857 cars from the road every year.
“There’s a lot of excitement in the community about the FOGO collection,” Cr Herbert said.
“One of the most common questions I receive from residents is ‘when will I get a FOGO bin at my house’, so I’m very pleased that we now have more surety around the roll-out schedule.”
Cr Herbert said more than 3000 households are already using the three bin system, while another 3000 will begin to receive the FOGO service in March with the “balance expected to follow soon after”.
Residents who haven’t been contacted already will receive a mail-out in early 2019 with further details about how FOGO works and when their collection starts.
