Media release
Inner West Deputy Mayor Mat Howard
TheInner West is expanding food recycling to childcare centres and schools acrossthe community.
This expansion followsthe successful roll out of food recycling to every Inner West household overthe past 12 months. In its first year, Inner West Council collected 17,546 tonnes of FOGO in the firstyear of operation, far above what was anticipated. That’s the equivalent of36,848 tonnes of CO2.
The new service forschools and early learning centres follows a survey conducted by Council thatshowed strong support from educators, students and parents who want foodrecycling implemented to help with education about sustainability.
Council will now offertwo FOGO green bins to each school and childcare centre to allow for a weeklycollection as part of the weekly residential collection.
Inner West DeputyMayor Mat Howard said, “We know a lot of food waste in our schools ends upin landfill, and this will go a long way to diverting more food scraps fromlandfill in the Inner West.
“When it comes tomanaging our waste better, kids and young people are often our teachers. Weknow good waste practices start at both home and school.
“I’m proud InnerWest Council is continuing to show environmental leadership by supportingschools and early learning centres to recycle food scraps.
“Expanding FOGOto schools and early learning centres will ensure new generations of youngpeople learn the benefits of FOGO and normalises the good work of divertingfood scraps from landfill.
“It will continuethe extraordinary work our community is doing to divert avoidable wasteand tackle climate change.”
Since the introductionof the service, Inner West residents have diverted 18,898 Tonnes of organicwaste from landfill, saving 28,347 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. This isequivalent to taking 15,991 cars off the road for a year.
