Residents in parts of Svensson Heights and Avenell Heights have been selected to take part in Bundaberg Regional Council’s Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) trial.
The FOGO trial will be rolled out to about 1300 households in four stages, with the first FOGO collection to take place on 3 October and the final stage of the trial kicking off on 16 November.
Participating households have received direct notification of their selection.
FOGO trial kits, including new lime green-lidded FOGO wheelie bins, kitchen caddies to easily store FOGO before they’re transferred to the wheelie bin and an information booklet, will be delivered to participating households from 25 September.
Mayor Jack Dempsey said it was exciting to see this progress for the FOGO trial.
“Council has now received advice from the Queensland Government about how its Waste Levy will be progressively applied to household and domestic waste to landfill over the next decade as it works to meet zero waste to landfill targets for the entire state,” Mayor Dempsey said.
“That leaves our community with a $26.6 million shortfall over the next 10 years if no action is taken.
“We’re taking a prudent approach to the introduction of FOGO to ensure the best outcome for our community and the environment.
“This trial is the first step towards diverting what is a valuable resource from landfill and supports our advocacy priority to facilitate the establishment of a circular economy.”
Fogo trial participants get support
Every household within the identified trial areas, which were selected based on operationally efficient routes, is required to participate in the trial.
Waste and Recycling portfolio spokesperson Cr Tanya McLoughlin said, during the trial, it was important to get a realistic gauge on the potential benefits of introducing a region-wide FOGO collection.
“The aim of this trial is to understand how FOGO collection will be received by the community and the types of volumes we can expect to be generated from a region-wide collection service.
“Trial participants will be supported by Council’s waste and recycling staff and have the first opportunity to significantly increase our region’s resource recovery from our kerbside collection service, thereby reducing waste to landfill.
“During the trial, a lime green-lidded wheelie bin will be provided to dispose of FOGO which will be collected weekly and the general waste bin, which will be given a red lid, will move to being collected fortnightly.
“The yellow-lidded recycling bin will continue to be collected fortnightly.”
There will be no additional charge for participants during the trial period.
FOGO facts:
Household food organics and garden organics (FOGO) accounts for about 57% of the waste being sent to landfill through the Bundaberg Region’s kerbside bin collection.
That’s 17,000 tonnes of food scraps and green waste going to landfill every year.
When these materials end up in landfill it contributes to the production of methane (a harmful greenhouse gas) made by rotting food scraps and garden materials.
Recycling food waste offers multifaceted benefits.
Firstly, it significantly reduces the burden on landfills, curbing methane emissions and aiding in the fight against climate change.
Secondly, it promotes the creation of nutrient-rich compost, enhancing soil quality and fostering healthier plant growth.
Read Council’s FOGO trial participants frequently asked questions here.
It’s great news that residents in Svensson Heights and Avenell Heights are getting selected to take part in the Bundaberg Regional Council’s Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) trial. The program will help reduce the amount of organic material going into landfill and provide useful resources to the local community. It’s also good to hear that the council has already started delivering kits to the participants. We look forward to seeing more communities get involved in similar programs in the future.
Great to see this finally coming to fruition. About 90% of my general waste is garden / organic material. It’s not so easy for me to get it out to somewhere like Greensill (probably the same for a lot of folks), so having council collections is a massive win. It will also force many to have a serious think about how much and what kind of waste they are generating. Hopefully the inevitable group of complainers don’t derail this fantastic initiative. Next step, finding a solution for diverting LDPE plastics from landfill.
ohh my god you for real more costs to ratepayers, do they sit back and think some people dont want to do this, but they will charge you to have yet more waste bins. The council needs to stop blowing money on pointless projects and blowing money on useless things, say for example Kirby’s road the council fixed that road and with-in a few weeks it broke out again… and yet they go and waste more money fixing it, they need to use another method to repair the road other then the dodgy road base and useless tar and gravel combination they seem to use and fails every time.
The council needs to ask around for solutions to issues not throw money at it and having to redo it every few months.
While you are at it why not also collect the methane & CO2 produced from what is already dumped to make electricity? https://www.cleanaway.com.au/sustainable-future/landfill-gas-power/
The electricity can then be sold making the council money.
We will not be having one of these garbage bins as we dont throw any green waste in the bin and we was brought up never to waste food,so we never have waste food,all our vegetable waste goes in our gardens,we live on acreage so we burn any bits of green waste we have.
another suggested about the landfill gas, well the council already does have a landfill gas setup but they just flare it apparently its too dirty to run a engine or turbine on it.
people saying about the cost in collection fees. well your already paying it as the council is charged fees by the state EPA for licence fees to have a landfill they are also charged a fee for every tonne of waste that goes onto the site. hence why they have a weighbridge they have to record every tonne of waste and report the total to the EPA.
so if they can collect all the organic waste such as green-waste, food scraps and food contaminated paper and cardboard which cant be recycled and compost it it becomes a useable product and they can save those EPA fees which would cover a lot of the cost.
why do you think the greensil family started a composting operation becuase they would pay big fees to dump the scrap vegetable waste from their farm and packing shed also they save on fertiliser and have healthier soil by using the compost on the fields.