FOGO FAQ

FOGO stands for Food Organics, Garden Organics.  In a nut-shell, FOGO is organic material including food-scraps, food soiled paper and general garden waste.

• Food organics – leftovers (cooked or raw), spoiled food, baked good, fruit/vegetable scraps, bones, seafood, dairy, cheese, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grinds
• Garden organics – lawn/grass clippings, weeds, leaves, flowers and small prunnings
• You can also put food soiled tissues, paper towel, napkins, paper packaging and soiled pizza boxes

This is your handy A-Z guide of items you can put in your green-lid organics bin: 

A – J

• Ash from wood fire (cold/inactive) 
• Baked goods
• Bones (chicken, fish and other small bones)
• Branches (<1m long and 35mm thick, i.e. cut with a secateurs/loppers)
• Breads, cakes and pastries
• Cereal slops 
• Cereals and grains 
• Certified compostable items (plates, bowls, trays, knife, forks)
• Coffee grounds and filter paper (no pods)
• Cooking oil and fats (absorb in paper towel or newspaper)
• Cotton balls 
• Dairy foods
• Dryer lint
• Eggshells
• Facial tissues
• Feathers
• Fish and chip paper
• Flowers
• Food scraps
• Fruit fly infested fruit (can be tied up in an AS4736 certified compostable bag)
• Fruits
• General garden clippings
• Grains
• Grass clippings
• Human and animal hair
• Jelly

K-P

• Kitchen paper towel (food soiled no chemicals)
• Lawn clippings
• Leaves
• Leftovers
• Lollies
• Meat (raw, cooked)
• Meat scraps
• Napkins, paper (food soiled)
• Newspaper
• Nuts & seeds
• Paper bags
• Paper containers and takeaway boxes
• Paper napkins (food soiled)
• Paper plates
• Paper towel (food contaminated or when used to wrap loose food, no chemicals)
• Pasta
• Pizza boxes
• Popsicle sticks
• Post it notes
• Poultry
• Printed serviettes
• Prunings and cuttings

Q-Z

• Salad and dressing
• Seafood (including bones and shells)
• Shredded paper
• Small branches
• Soiled cardboard/paper
• Spoiled food
• Sticks 
• Straw and hay 
• Take away food scraps
• Tea bags/leaves
• Thorny branches
• Tissues
• Toilet rolls
• Tree roots (<1m long and 35mm thick)
• Vegetables
• Weeds
• Wet paper/cardboard
• Wooden toothpicks
• Wooden uncoated chopsticks/skewers

Some items should never go in your green-lid organics bin. They include:

• Plastic bags, cling wrap or any other hard or soft plastic packaging
• Any metal objects (tin cans, foil, aluminium food trays, metal knifes/forks)
• Biodegradable/degradable plastics
• Nappies, personal hygiene products or medical waste
• Animal waste or kitty litter
• Stickers on fruit and vegetables
• Soil, stumps and root balls
• Branches or roots with a diameter larger than 35mm
• Plastic plant pots, garden hoses, seedling trays or garden tools
• Treated and painted timber, building materials, metals and glass
• Recyclables, textiles, vacuum dust, cigarette butts
• Chemical or cleaning products
• Palm leaves
• Concrete and bricks
• Rocks, stones, pebbles, gravel
• Plastic or polystyrene food packaging or takeaway containers
• Glass bottles or jars
• Recyclables
• Vacuum dust
• Textile material, fabrics, cloths

On average almost 50% of the contents of your red-lid general waste bin is food and garden organics that goes to landfill, putting pressure on already limited landfill space and generating greenhouse gases. By introducing an organics (green-lid) kerbside bin collection we will divert around 1,000 tonnes of household food and garden organics away from landfill each year.

Landfills are expensive and should be the last option for waste disposal. The faster the landfill space is used, the greater the cost to the community and the environment.

FOGO is a beneficial resource and if collected and processed appropriately, it can be turned into soil and mulch that can be used in farms, parks and sportsfields. 

Food scraps generate methane in a landfill. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas 21 times worse than carbon dioxide. Less methane production in our landfill means we are contributing to reducing our environmental impact. 

All residents with a residential waste collection service (approximately 6,050 properties) now have a weekly Organics collection service.

The success of the FOGO service relies on having no contaminants in your green-lid Organics bin. FOGO is not just about choosing the right bin, it’s about changing the way we think about waste.

What is a contaminant?

Major contaminants include plastic bags, plastic wrap and other items that belong in your general waste or recycling bin.