Published on Tuesday, 29 April 2025 at 3:12:16 PM
What is FOGO?
FOGO stands for Food Organics Garden Organics.
Residents will be able to place their food waste into their existing lime-green lidded bin, which will become their FOGO bin. The FOGO bin will reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill or energy recovery.
The contents of the FOGO bin will be turned into high-quality compost. This will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a positive impact on our environment.
Who will get the FOGO service?
Initially, the FOGO service will only be available to properties without shared bins.
Best practice guidelines for introducing FOGO suggest a multi-stage process, starting with houses and moving to apartments and complexes in the future.
What can go in a FOGO bin?
All food scraps and garden organics can go in the FOGO bin.
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Food organics
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Garden waste
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· Fruit and vegetable scraps
· Meat and bones
· Seafood
· Eggshells
· Teabags and coffee grounds
· Dairy products
· Take away food (no containers or packaging)
· Any food that has expired or is mouldy (no containers or packaging)
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· Grass clippings
· Prunings and cuttings
· Twigs and sticks
· Palm fronds
· Weeds
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Certified compostable caddy liners and produce bags can also go in your FOGO bin. They must have this symbol:
What can NOT go in a FOGO bin?
FOGO is different from home composting. There are some materials that can be composted at home but should not go in a FOGO bin. These include:
- Shredded paper
- ‘Biopak’ or other food packaging
- Single-use coffee cups
- Pet poo
- Kitty litter
- Paper towels
- Greasy pizza boxes
- Egg cartons
With the exception of compostable caddy liners, if it’s not a food organic or garden organic it cannot go in FOGO.
What’s the difference between GO and FOGO?
GO stands for Garden Organics, while FOGO stands for Food Organics Garden Organics.
GO bins are only used for lawn clippings and garden vegetation. These materials are currently mulched and available to residents for free from the West Metro Recycling Centre.
FOGO bins can accept food scraps, as well as garden organics. These materials combined will be taken to a FOGO processing location to be composted into Australian Certified compost.
How will the FOGO service work in Peppermint Grove?
Households going FOGO will maintain a three-bin system, but the green-lidded GO bin will become a FOGO bin.
This transition allows you to add food scraps as well as garden vegetation to your lime-green lidded bin. Participating households will also receive a kitchen caddy and a supply of certified compostable liners to hold food scraps until they are tipped into the FOGO bin.
- Your lime green-lidded FOGO bin will be collected weekly
- Your red-lidded general waste bin will continue to be collected weekly
- Your yellow-lidded recycling bin will continue to be collected fortnightly on alternating weeks
Refer to the bin collection calendar to check dates
I already have a lime green-lidded bin. Can I start putting food scraps in it now?
Please do not put food scraps in your lime green-lidded bin until after your kitchen caddy and FOGO information arrives on 7 May.
What are the benefits of FOGO?
Moving to a three-bin FOGO system has many benefits for our environment, including:
Reduction in landfill: Transitioning to FOGO removes all food waste from the red-lidded general waste bin and keeps it out of landfill. The WA State Government has proposed a target for 70% of household waste to be recycled by 2030 and FOGO is required if we are to meet that target.
Using organic waste: 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 organic waste into compost will reduce the impact on the atmosphere and environment and in addition return valuable nutrients to the soil.
Why are we moving to FOGO?
- Collecting both food organics as well as garden organics means that our processors can make compost for growing more food. When trapped in landfill, FOGO produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that harms the atmosphere and environment.
- Landfilling FOGO is a waste of valuable nutrients for our soils.
Composting FOGO is better for the environment because it reduces methane production and recovers and returns valuable nutrients to the soil in the form of com
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