Published on Thursday, 10 June 2021 at 9:31:15 AM

The Town of Bassendean introduced FOGO (Food Organics Garden Organics) collection in 2019, taking advantage of the funding support offered by the Waste Authority for early adopters. The service is in alignment with the State Waste Strategy that requires all local governments to introduce FOGO collections by 2025.

Introducing FOGO enables the Town and its residents to divert more material from landfill than ever before, turn the diverted material into valuable soil improver and insulate the Town’s rate-payers from future increases in the Landfill Levy. Correct separation of waste is one of the most important factors contributing to the success of the new system. In some instances, materials such as glass and plastics have been found in FOGO bins. Therefore as a community there is still room for improvement to reduce the level of contamination so that the end product can meet the Australian Standards for soil improver to be used on our home gardens.  That said, the material generated from FOGO is suitable for many other uses and is not going to waste.   

As with any change there is a period of adjustment and the Town’s waste educators have been working closely with the community to assist with the transition. The Town is undertaking bin tagging as part of the FOGO education program to let residents know when they are separating their waste correctly or offering actionable advice to help improve the sorting of waste.  Bin tagging has been proven effective in lowering contamination levels and the Town was fortunate to receive a Better Bins: Go FOGO grant from the Waste Authority to fund the bin tagging.

In the absence of bin-tagging, contamination levels are expected to be higher, which not only increases the cost to our community for waste processing but also lowers the quality of the end product.  This means that the community can't use the FOGO soil improver in their gardens.  

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