Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) Trial

FOGO Trial Update May 2024

Council has received very positive feedback with residents and businesses embracing the Trial. We would like to congratulate and thank everyone participating!

Since the launch of our FOGO Trial on 24 October 2023, we have been able to support 622 residents and businesses across three different locations including the Woodside Township, the rural area to the East of Woodside and along the rural area of Swamp and Tiers Road. The Trial will continue until October 2024 and provides the opportunity to significantly improve food waste diversion and reduce waste to landfill in the Adelaide Hills Council area.

Explore the trial map

The Trial has involved changes to household bin collections and to the supply of green lidded FOGO bins which some residents didn’t have prior to the Trial. Collection of green lidded bins has occurred weekly or fortnightly for residents. All residents in the Trial have had their general waste bins collected fortnightly.

Feedback Survey Opportunity - Closed

We opened a survey seeking additional feedback from everyone in the Trial during late March and April 2024. This will assist Council to understand Participants experience and will help to inform Council’s future waste decisions.

The opportunity to provide feedback closed on 3 May 2024 and we are currently reviewing feedback. We look forward to sharing the results of the feedback soon.

We're looking forward to continually supporting residents during the trial and hearing about the experiences they have.

FOGO Trial Started in October 2023

Along with our Waste Management partner East Waste we were excited to start our 12-month FOGO trial. The trial provides the opportunity to significantly improve food waste diversion, and overall landfill diversion in the Adelaide Hills Council area.

On the 24 of October 2023, over 600 households and a small number of businesses in parts of Woodside and Lenswood started trialing the new kerbside bin collection systems. This included introducing a new food organics and garden organics (FOGO) bin for rural households (who previously have never had one) and change the collection frequency of organics bins and landfill bins.

Welcome Packs

Households in the trial areas were provided with welcome packs from 18 September 2023, prior to the trial starting. Packs included a letter and information booklet, kitchen caddy, compostable bags, and new waste calendars. Packs also provided information for households on how easy it is to recycle food waste and get the best results out of the new system during the trial.

Background

FOGO is a short way of saying ‘Food Organics, Garden Organics’ which means your food scraps and garden clippings. This isn't all FOGO stands for, it includes everything that can go in your green bin:

• all food waste (meat, bones, cheese and dairy, vegetable scraps and bread)
• soiled paper products (shredded paper, paper towel, tissues and pizza boxes)
• compostable packaging (must be certified to Australian standard AS 4736)
• all garden organics (grass clippings, leaves etc.)
• animal faeces

What is the benefit of reduced FOGO to landfill?

Benefits of reduced FOGO to landfill include:

• Reducing landfill greenhouse gas emissions
• Assisting in growing the circular economy through the processing and return of nutrient-rich compost back to our South Australian soil
• Creating more compost for growing our food
• Potential cost savings by diverting waste from landfill
• Reducing smell from the green FOGO bins, by collecting food and garden organics on a weekly basis
• Increasing food recycling rates
• Providing more bin capacity each fortnight.

Why do a FOGO trial?

We want to know what bin system works best for our community and the environment. So, for 12 months we are trialing three different bin collection options.

1. A weekly green bin collection and fortnightly blue landfill bin (yellow fortnightly recycling remains the same) in a township

2. A weekly green bin provided to rural properties in a trial site who have never had a green bin before (yellow fortnightly recycling remains the same and blue landfill bin collected fortnightly)

3. A fortnightly green bin provided to rural properties in a trial site who have never had a green bin before (yellow fortnightly recycling remains the same and blue landfill bin collected fortnightly)

Providing expanded and increased FOGO services (green-lid bin) and a fortnightly landfill (blue-lid bin) service may actively encourage the community to place more food waste in their FOGO bin.

What happens after the trial?

We'll check in with the trial participants, undertake detailed analysis of the trial results, review environmental impacts, asses the economic benefits and then provide a report to Council with recommendations. Any future change will be undertaken in collaboration with project partners East Waste.