A kitchen caddy being emptied into a green bin for FOGO collection. Photo: City of Port Phillip.
A government kitchen and garden waste pick-up service will be trialled in selected Belconnen suburbs later this year.
The pilot Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection service will be rolled out in Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie.
The scheme is part of ACT Government plans to reduce waste going to landfill and turn household scraps into valuable compost.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the FOGO pilot would allow Canberrans to make better choices to stop waste going to landfill and take everyday action on climate change.
“About a third of our residential garbage bin contents are food waste which currently goes to landfill and contributes to our emissions,” Mr Barr said.
“Food waste breaks down in the airless conditions in our landfill and emits methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas.
“The ACT has a target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and achieve net zero emissions by 2045 so reducing these emissions from our waste stream is an important part of the Government’s action on climate change.”
Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel said the pilot suburbs had been selected because of their mix of single residential dwellings and multi-unit properties.
“The FOGO service will enable Canberrans to take everyday action on climate change by removing valuable organics from landfill and helping to reduce waste emissions by up to 30 per cent,” Mr Steel said.
He said the pilot would focus on contamination rates, and how FOGO collection can be implemented successfully across a mix of single residential houses and multi-unit apartment dwellings before it was rolled out to the rest of Canberra.”
Green-lidded bins will change from garden waste only to FOGO bins, and participating households that do not already have a green waste bin will be provided one free of charge.
All participating households will be given an easy-to-use kitchen caddy with compostable liners as a convenient way to collect their food scraps. The compostable bags can then be emptied into the FOGO bin along with garden waste.
Waste collection for single-residential households in the pilot suburbs will change, with green FOGO bins collected weekly instead of fortnightly, and garbage bins collected fortnightly instead of weekly.
“The approach for the pilot will be similar to other local councils that have already adopted FOGO and we will be educating Belconnen residents in the pilot area on how to make this change,” Mr Steel said.
“Participating households will be contacted by way of letter and we will work closely with residents to support their transition to the FOGO service ahead of the pilot commencing later this year.”
The FOGO pilot is intended to continue through to when the service is rolled out to all Canberra households in 2023.
The government says recent survey results show that 92 per cent of Canberrans support a fully-fledged FOGO collection service in the ACT.
For more information on the FOGO pilot, visit: www.act.gov.au/fogo.
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