Since 2021, the City of Greater Dandenong has encouraged its residents to think green and work towards a more sustainable community with the introduction of a Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) service.
The National Waste Policy Action Plan sets targets to reduce total waste generated in Australia by 10 per cent per person by 2030 and halve organic waste sent to landfill by 2030.
A key initiative to reach these goals is the introduction of a food organics garden organics (FOGO) service.
According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, 74 per cent of Australians already have access to an organic waste kerbside collection and about 32 per cent have access to a FOGO collection. The Victorian government aims to roll out FOGO statewide by the end of 2030.
The City of Greater Dandenong adopted FOGO in April 2021 and, it says, hasn’t looked back.
Tony Barca, Team Leader of Waste Services at the City of Greater Dandenong, says the city’s work in the organics space is encouraging residents to be conscious of the environment when making waste management decisions.
“Before the FOGO service, food waste was going into the landfill general waste bin and ending up in landfill; this breaks down slowly and releases methane gas: a harmful greenhouse gas,” Tony says.
“This general waste is not able to be recycled into our garden waste stream, so we lose a valuable resource which could be turned into compost for use by Victorian farmers.
“FOGO also assists our community to refocus and ensure they place items in the correct bin. Council continues to manage this targeted community education program.”
Tony says that the implementation of this new system hasn’t always been easy in the City of Greater Dandenong because of a transient population and a culturally diverse community.
He says waste change behaviour education programs take time to resonate but the benefits of FOGO keep council motivated to continue encouraging locals to get on board.
“The overall community response has been positive. Council has seen a reduction in food waste being sent to landfill and although only small in volume after nearly two years, we have been encouraged that this will increase post pandemic,” Tony says.
Currently, 84 per cent of houses in the council area have access to a FOGO service. Tony says the council has seen the volume of FOGO collected increase by about 3000 tonnes since the program was started.
The city has been working with resource recovery company, Veolia, for about two decades.
Veolia works with councils, industries, and customers to clean up, recover, recycle, and provide renewable energy and clean water to local communities.
Steven Marshall, General Manager of Resource Recovery at Veolia, says the City of Greater Dandenong’s implementation of FOGO has been unique and productive for the community.
“Food and garden organics are highly recyclable, so there is a huge amount of environmental value to be had by separating it from general waste.
“It can be challenging to shift waste behaviours, but in our experience, the best way to increase participation is to take a targeted approach, with relevant, direct messages. This is exactly what the City of Greater Dandenong did, leading to a successful implementation.”
Steven says contamination is a common roadblock for councils when FOGO is introduced, however, City of Greater Dandenong has worked hard to control the issue.
“It takes time for people to understand what can and can’t go into their bins, and when they get it wrong it’s important to re-educate. Working closely with the City of Greater Dandenong we undertook detailed contamination audits so that we could trace the areas of the municipality with contamination problems,” he says.
“We could then target those places until improvement was reached.”
Because of this targeted approach, Steven says contamination rates within the municipality have reduced.
“Over the years there have been significant improvements to both recycling rates and the contamination levels, which is a credit to the strong partnership we have with the City of Dandenong. We still keep a close eye on contamination because issues do pop up and we need to act quickly to address them so that we can recycle to the highest quality possible,” he says.
“Some common mistakes people make is to bag their FOGO. People will fill bags with the wrong things, such as recyclables or items labelled compostable, which is not correct. Glass and light plastics are another common inbound item that shouldn’t be there. All of these items need to stay out, otherwise they will contaminate the end-product. Basically, the cleaner the inbound stream, the better the end-product will be.”
That end-product is a nutrient rich compost that can be reused by the council and community.
Steven says the City of Greater Dandenong uses this product to put back into the community, enhancing a circular economy outcome.
“Council is committed to circular solutions, and we are pleased that they have found many uses for the end product, which can go on to help new trees and crops grow,” he says.
“If other councils could mirror what Dandenong has done well, the environment would be in a much better position.”
The Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) is one of Australia’s leading recycling associations. It works to encourage its members to collaborate and brainstorm sustainability solutions within the waste management industry.
John McKew, AORA National Executive Officer, says the relationship between AORA, Veolia and City of Greater Dandenong is hard-working.
“We love to see AORA members working together. In this case, we are very happy to see the City of Greater Dandenong and Veolia tackling the industry’s biggest issue, contamination, and completing the process by buying product back,” John says.
“We encourage other local governments to work closely with their waste management providers to facilitate the best outcomes for all.”
Tony says the results of the FOGO service are in line with council’s ambition to provide a sustainable future for the municipality.
“Our goal is to ensure the community is given every opportunity to participate in FOGO,” he says.
“We want to make sure our engagement and education reaches as far as it can.”
For more information, visit: www.aora.org.au
