Released 03/10/2021 - Joint media release
The ACT Government will pilot Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection services for selected Belconnen suburbs later this year which will help to reduce waste going to landfill and turn household scraps into valuable compost.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the FOGO pilot would allow Canberrans to make better choices to stop waste going to landfill and take everyday action on climate change.
“About a third of our residential garbage bin contents are food waste which currently goes to landfill and contributes to our emissions,” Chief Minister Barr said.
“Food waste breaks down in the airless conditions in our landfill and emits methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas. The ACT has a target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and achieve net zero emissions by 2045 so reducing these emissions from our waste stream is an important part of the Government’s action on climate change.”
Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel said pilot suburbs Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie have been selected because of their mix of single residential dwellings and multi-unit properties.
“The FOGO service will enable Canberrans to take everyday action on climate change by removing valuable organics from landfill and helping to reduce waste emissions by up to 30 per cent,” said Minister Steel.
“A focus of the pilot will be to look at contamination rates, and how FOGO collection can be implemented successfully across a mix of single residential houses and multi-unit apartment dwellings before we roll this out the service to the rest of Canberra.”
As part of the pilot, green lidded bins will change from garden waste only to FOGO bins. Participating households that do not already have a green waste bin will be provided one free of charge to maximise waste diverted from landfill.
All participating households will be given an easy-to-use kitchen caddy with compostable liners as a convenient way to collect their food scraps. The food scraps in the compostable bags can then be emptied into the FOGO bin along with garden waste.
Waste collection for single-residential households in the pilot suburbs will change, with green FOGO bins collected weekly instead of fortnightly, and garbage bins collected fortnightly instead of weekly.
“The approach for the pilot will be similar to other local councils that have already adopted FOGO and we will be educating Belconnen residents in the pilot area on how to make this change,” Minister Steel said.
“Participating households will be contacted by way of letter and we will work closely with residents to support their transition to the FOGO service ahead of the pilot commencing later this year.”
The FOGO pilot is intended to continue through to when the service is rolled out to all Canberra households in 2023. Recent survey results shows that 92 per cent of Canberrans support a fully-fledged FOGO collection service in the ACT.
For more information on the FOGO pilot, visit: www.act.gov.au/fogo
- Statement ends -
Andrew Barr, MLA | Chris Steel, MLA | Media Releases