Stonnington diverts 4420 tonnes of FOGO from landfill

The City of Stonnington has diverted 4420 tonnes of FOGO from landfill in the last 12 months – a 20 per cent increase over what was previously a green waste only service.

April marks a year since the Melbourne council added a FOGO waste bin to its kerbside collection service, with nearly 13,000 households now participating.

City of Stonnington Mayor Kate Hely said she was delighted to see so many households supporting the service and showing their commitment to reducing the amount of food waste going to landfill.

“It’s really pleasing to see so many people signing up to our FOGO service, but there’s still room to do more,” she said.

“We would love to see more households sign up, and we’re particularly keen to see people living in apartments getting on board.

“It’s amazing to think that with a very small change to our recycling habits, we could be collecting and recycling almost all food and green waste.”

Hely added that over 36 per cent of the content of the average waste bin is food scraps.

“By simply putting those scraps into a FOGO bin we will keep a huge amount of reusable waste out of landfill.

“The FOGO we collect is turned into high quality compost used by Victorian farmers to grow the food that will end up back on our tables.

“By contrast, when food scraps end up in landfill that resource is lost, and even worse, as the waste breaks down it creates methane, a greenhouse gas harmful to the environment.

“Signing up for a FOGO bin, or a shared bin for those living in apartments, ensures this valuable resource is easily collected and turned into something useful.”

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