The Australian Capital Territories (ACT) Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection pilot is being expanded into more than 1150 additional households within multi-unit developments in Belconnen and Tuggeranong.
Introduced in November 2021, the FOGO pilot has been providing a weekly collection of food scraps and garden waste for about 5300 households in the suburbs of Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie.
Tara Cheyne, Minister for City Services, said the pilot will be expanded to include an additional 772 households in Belconnen and 400 households in Tuggeranong.
“Roughly one-third of items put into household rubbish bins in the ACT is food,” she said.
“This is equal to approximately 26,000 tonnes of food waste going to landfill each year.”
Cheyne said 3475 tonnes of food and garden waste had been diverted from landfill and turned into compost since the implementation of the pilot through to June 2024.
“This supports a circular economy within the ACT and reduces the amount of harmful greenhouse gas emissions that come from our landfill,” she said.
“The households added to the pilot in Belconnen and Tuggeranong will continue to provide valuable insights to inform a future Canberra-wide rollout of FOGO, across the rest of the ACT once a large-scale FOGO processing facility has been built.
“Data collected will also provide insights to help improve waste management practices for multi-unit developments as a whole.”
Information will be provided to residents and building managers on the correct use of FOGO within their buildings.
Participating households will receive an easy-to-use kitchen caddy with compostable liner bags for food scraps, along with a light green lidded FOGO bin within their shared waste enclosures.
There will be no changes to regular bin collections within the expansion areas.
For more information, www.cityservices.act.gov.au
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