Over the next 12 months the Western Australian Better Bins program will be implemented in more than 370,000 households in the City of Joondalup, City of Fremantle and Town of East Fremantle, plus additional households in the City of Melville.
The City of Melville trialled a full FOGO system in 2017-18, returning positive results for the diversion of household organics from landfill.
In its Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030, the Western Australian Government outlined food organics and garden organics collection (FOGO) as a priority for waste avoidance and minimisation.
Run by the Western Australian Waste Authority, the Better Bins program aims to ensure that all Perth and Peel households have a third kerbside bin for FOGO by 2025.
Better Bins runs on the principal that more waste separation at the source leads to less contamination and therefore greater recycling and reuse rates.
Under the three-bin FOGO system, food scraps and garden organics are separated from other waste categories at kerbside and reused to create high-quality compost.
The system also functions to keep other waste streams clean and uncontaminated, therefore making them easier to recycle, reprocess and remake into products, reducing the need for extraction of new materials
Currently 16 local governments participate in the program and of these, five are providing a full FOGO service.
After the 370,000 new additions the rate of household participation across the state will stand at 37 per cent.
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation will soon start consulting with key stakeholders on how to promote and encourage local governments’ adoption of FOGO systems, hoping to increase material recovery to 75 per cent by 2030.
WA has extended the funding application period until 30 June 2019.
Related stories:
- Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030 released
- WA council boosts recycling with three-bin collection
- City of Melville’s FOGO trial