Published on Friday, 7 May 2021 at 11:05:51 AM
Turning Albany’s food scraps into compost through the FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) bin system will be one step closer as new bin lids and kitchen caddies are delivered to households.
Residents who don’t have a yellow lid on their recycling bin or a red lid on their general waste bin will receive a one-off free lid replacement to comply with Australian Standards.
From 17 May residents must leave their bins out from 6am to 6pm on their normal bin day to enable the City’s contractor to change lids where required, and attach a new sticker to recycling bin lids.
Householders are asked to do this each week until their changeover is complete, with the entire process expected to take up to eight weeks.
At the same time households will receive a kitchen caddy, roll of compostable liners, Waste Guide and FOGO bin sticker to help residents sort their waste when the FOGO system starts.
When the new service starts the lime-green lidded green waste bin will become the FOGO bin for food scraps as well as garden prunings, pet poo, pizza boxes, meat bones and seafood.
Bin collection days will remain the same but the frequency of bin collection will change so FOGO and general waste bins will be collected one week and recycling bins the alternate week.
The FOGO bin will be collected weekly for eight weeks between mid-December and mid-February each year when the weather is warmer and seasonal celebrations take place.
City of Albany Executive Director Development, Infrastructure and Environment Paul Camins said the fortnightly service was found to be effective when tested during a FOGO trial in 2018.
“A third of our general waste is made up of food scraps and garden prunings which create harmful greenhouse gases when they rot in landfill” Mr Camins said.
“By diverting this waste through the FOGO service we will save an estimated 2,300 tonnes of household waste from landfill.”
“The success of the FOGO system at other locations across Australia together with the great results from our local trial gives us confidence that Albany residents will adjust quickly to the new service.”
Residents can visit the City of Albany website www.albany.wa.gov.au/FOGO or call 6820 3000 for more information.
The Better Bins project is funded by the State Government through the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Account, and administered by the Waste Authority.
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