Residents across Murray River Council will soon have a Food Organics Garden Organics kerbside waste collection service, known as FOGO.
Residents in Barham, Moulamein, Mathoura, Murray Downs, Moama, Wakool and Tooleybuc who live within the organics collection boundaries will start to see this service in operation from July 1.
Residents in Moama and Mathoura who already have green waste collection will also now have their service expanded to include food organics too.
The expanded service is being introduced thanks to funding received under the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s Waste Less Recycle More program.
“We have had lots of requests to expand our current garden organics collection service right across the council area, so it is exciting that we can now introduce FOGO across the area thanks to the EPA funding,” Mayor Chris Bilkey said.
“The 3-bin Food Organics Garden Organics system will provide residents with more options for separating their waste, with the aim of improving recovery rates, increasing organic material diversion from landfill and reducing processing costs.”
“As well as a new green bin and kitchen benchtop caddy, residents can also expect to receive some household information materials so they know what to put in each bin and how the collection service will work,” he said.
By then end of June, all residential kerbside waste collection customers within the organics collection boundaries will have the following bins located at their property:
- 140 litre general waste bin (red lid bin)
- 240 litre recycling bin (yellow lid bin)
- 240 litre organics bin (green lid bin)
- 7 litre kitchen caddy
“Food and garden waste accounts for almost half of the waste materials in an average household general waste bin,” Cr Bilkey said.
“By using your green-lid bin for food and garden waste instead of your red lid garbage bin, your waste will be turned into a valuable resource, benefiting local farmers and growers.”
Council is also required to implement the 3-bin system in response to the NSW Landfill Diversion Targets implemented via the NSW EPA; with 80% of organic waste to be removed from landfill by 2030.
Customers can expect to start receiving the caddies, information packages and green lid bins at their properties throughout June, ready for a July 1 commencement date.
Commercial kerbside waste customers will not be receiving a FOGO (green lid) bin at this time, with plans to roll out a separate FOGO program for this service in the future.
