FOGO stands for Food Organics Garden Organics, a waste collection service of food organics and garden organics in your green-lidded organics bin.

Every household that currently receives a kerbside waste and recycling service and has a green-lidded organics bin will get a FOGO service.

If you do not have a green-lidded organics bin and receive Council kerbside collection, please call 1300 362 360 and request one be delivered.

No. A starter kit will be delivered to your household. The starter kit will include a 7-litre kitchen caddy, roll of 150 compostable caddy liners, FOGO User Guide and other information relating to waste services. When you receive your starter kit you can start placing food waste in your green-lidded organics bin.

Wollongong City Council will be providing another one-year supply of compostable liners (roll of 150) for next financial year and are currently working out the finer details on whether this will be another delivery or a collection point.

If you need more liners before the next supply is available they are available for purchase at most grocery stores in the Illawarra and can be purchased online as well. Please refer to the Guide to Purchasing Compostable Liners.

No. The compostable liners provided in your FOGO Starter Kit are optional, if you prefer you can leave food waste loose.

FOGO will be collected weekly with your red-lidded general waste bin.

Yes. The green-lidded organics bin is collected with the red-lidded general waste bin one week and on the alternate week the green-lidded organics bin, the red-lidded general waste bin and yellow-lidded recycling bin is collected.

This service will be reviewed after 12 months of operations.

Your collection day will not change.

We are all responsible for generating waste and as such all residents are encouraged to participate as this is an easy way to help protect the environment, reduce waste to landfill, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and potentially save the community money.

Your Council rates are used to fund many different community services; some you benefit from directly and others indirectly. This enables Council to provide more services that wouldn’t be possible if only those who directly benefited paid.

For the many households that don’t have animals or the space, time or physical ability for a home compost system, FOGO gives them a sustainable way to dispose of their organic waste. FOGO also provides a new, safe way to dispose of more items than in a standard home compost system including perennial weeds and meat products.

If you already have a home compost system, you’ll appreciate that the more people composting either at home or via the Council FOGO service, the better it is for everyone.

The FOGO bin can complement your compost heap as it can take the things that your compost heap can’t – like weed seeds, excess lawn clippings and leaves, meat, bones and dairy products. Compost heaps need the right blend of ‘green’ and ‘brown’ materials so if you’ve got excess of one type, you can add it to the green bin, knowing that it will still be composted.

Worms can be fussy eaters and often do not like onions, citrus, eggshells and potato peels. You can put the things they don’t like in the FOGO bin.

Chooks are great at turning organic matter into fertilizer. There are some things that chooks won’t eat so they can be put in the FOGO bin.

Food and garden organics collected from your green-lidded organics bin is transported to a licensed composting facility for processing. During processing the material is converted into rich compost. Unlike landfill, this is a sustainable waste management alternative which results in a more positive, long term environmental outcome for our community and environment.

As our population grows, so does the amount of waste generated. It is important that we take action on our waste now. The new FOGO collection service will divert a significant amount of organic waste from landfill and will instead recycle it into quality compost.

Organic waste is a problem in landfill as it produces methane, a harmful greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Turning it into compost reduces the impact on the environment and allows waste to become a usable product.

The FOGO collection has already been successfully introduced in several local government areas and others are joining this sustainability initiative. Everyone can help reduce the impact of waste and improve environmental outcomes by using their kerbside bins correctly.

There will be no change to the cost of your current kerbside waste and recycling collection service.

Over time you will save money. In future, waste will cost a lot more as taxes on landfill increase so by diverting organic waste from landfill, it won’t cost your Council as much, saving you money in the long term.

If you have any questions or queries about your kerbside collection, please don’t hesitate to contact the REMONDIS Harbour Cities Team on 1300 362 360 or send an email to education@wollongongwaste.com.au.